The Thief
by Sun111shine3
Summary: It's just an ordinary day until someone from the past returns and threatens their future. Rated Mature for violence, language, and sex.
1. The Thief

**Author's note: this takes place right after the first arc of tenjho tenge.**

"No brat! That's not how you do it!" shouted their captain.

"Come on! I'm starving here! Ever since I was able to do the forged iron needle. I've eaten only once!" shouted the blond kid. He was wearing a red shirt and blue jean shorts. He was sweating up a storm but still, his captain, Maya Natsume, wouldn't even budge.

"And you're gonna keep starving until you master it!" Maya shouted back. She was getting tired of his constant complaining, but knew that this had to be done in order for him to master his attack.

"But... sis... you shouldn't be so hard on him....," whimpered Aya. She was Maya's younger sister, and Souichiro's so-called fiancé.

Maya glared at her younger sister but eventually sighed. She knew this was going to happen. Aya's golden eyes were close to tears. Maya turned and looked at Souichiro, who was on the verge of passing out. Maya looked back at her sister and placed her left hand on Aya's head.

"You should have more faith in your sister," Maya whispered and removed her hand. She turned and walked into the house.

Everyone from the Juken club had been training at the Natsume's residence because it was safer there than at the dojo at school. It was important for them to try to keep their fighting knowledge away from the other clubs, because they had hoped they would be able to win the next election tournament.

Maya silently walked thru their house. She entered a dark room and kept the sliding door open because the moon would be able to lighten up the whole room.

She walked over to the only table within the room, and knelt down in front of it. On the table was a photograph of her older brother, Shin. He was young, with long silver, flowing hair.

"Heh.. I like this picture of you, brother. You're actually smiling and you don't have that stupid eye patch on," Maya grinned out. "It made you look like a pirate anyways," she chuckled.

Her smile quickly faded into a frown. She closed her big sapphire eyes and thought back to the last moment she saw Shin alive.

**~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~small flashback~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~**

"_I remember everyone just standing around, not helping. Nobody would help you, brother! Your face looked determined at the start of the fight but then... it all changed..._

"_Mits...Mitsuomi's face looked blank. Like he didn't have a single thought... other than to win..._

"_I never... saw that before. It terrified me. And then.. Your face... it changed too. Your whole attitude changed. It was as if... time froze... no one could say anything or even more for that matter. I tried to scream... to yell... to move! But... I just couldn't. All I could do was just stare on as you and Mitsuomi fought..._

"_But even when I was able to cry out... you wouldn't listen. You probably didn't even hear me, did you? No... you probably didn't. If you did though.. Why didn't you stop? Didn't you see me?... didn't you see my tears?_

"_What about Mana?... I'm sure... she was crying... I can't believe she yelled at me like that! All I did was... yell out... and she ended up yelling at me... I hope you gave her a tongue lashing for that one brother..._

"_I thought... you always wanted me at your side... I guess you didn't...in the end.... But... I like to think that I mattered.. But really...really..._

"_Really, no one, other than Mitsuomi mattered to you... and before we knew it... you were gone..."_

__**End of flashback~+~+~+~+~**

"I want you to know...," she opened her eyes and looked at his picture. "I want you to know that I never left you... I never will... I promise..."

She wiped her tears away and stood up on her shaky legs. She looked at all of the other objects on the table next to Shin's picture.

There was the picture of the original Juken club. Shin was smiling, while leaning up against his bike, and Bounshichi was kneeling right next to him. Mitsuomi had his arm around Maya, and they were both smiling.

Maya looked away from that picture, while feeling a slight tug at her heart. She looked at a note that was addressed to Shin. It was from his girlfriend, Mana. It had never been read by anyone else other than Shin.

"_And that's how it should remain," thought Maya._

There were only two more objects on the table now. Right next to the note was a picture of Maya's parents. Aya usually stares at the photograph a lot because its becoming more difficult for her to remember them. Everything had happened when she was so young.

The final object on the table was a necklace that Shin had bought Maya the day before the fight with Mitsuomi. Maya had refused to wear the necklace because she claimed he had 'wasted' money on her, and she could live without it. Maya picked up the necklace, and had started to cry again.

"_Maybe if I wore this... maybe if... I would've appreciated him more... he would've..." her thoughts became clouded and she wept again._

Her fingers were shaking as she put down the golden necklace. With one last look at the photograph of her big brother, she wiped her tears for the last time and left the room.

She slowly walked up to the training area and watched her students practice. She was lost in thought for ten minutes, before she yawned and decided it was about time that they called it quits.

"Go out and have dinner," she told them.

"But Captain! It's only 8:30! We can still train-" Masataka started to say but was caught off by Aya.

"That's a great idea! Souichiro, I know of this amazing place where we can go!" Aya squealed with pleasure.

"What? No way!" Souichiro yelled. "I'm not allowed to eat, so I'll just stay here and train some more." Souichiro started punching and kicking at nothing.

"Brat, I'm letting you eat. Now all of you, go," Maya said, while turning around.

Masataka sighed and left the room displeased. Bob and Souichiro left shortly afterwards.

"Uhm..sister... Can I talk to you?" Aya asked, timidly.

"Hmm?" Maya turned around and looked at Aya, questionably.

Aya walked up to Maya and stared at her sister's eyes. Finally, she asked, "Are you ok? You're eyes... are kind of puffy..."

"Hrm..." Maya turned away from Aya, and looked at the wall.

"It's... brother... isn't it?" Aya asked. Her eyes were full with concern.

Maya flashed around with anger. "Did you use your dragon's eye?!"

"What? No! It's just..." Aya looked down, trying to avoid her sister's gaze. "I've noticed you were staring at his picture a lot lately, so I... just assumed..."

"It's none of your business! You should really be leaving, otherwise you will miss Souichiro," Maya said, fully frustrated and annoyed. She looked down at her sister, and started to cool down.

"Oh!" Aya looked up with bright eyes, "you're right! But what about you?"

"Me? I'm not hungry," Maya said while looking thru the window, at the moon.

"Oh... alright..." Aya said, disappointed. She ran out of the room, calling Souichiro's name.

Maya closed her eyes and stretched. She left the room and walked onto the grass with her bare feet. It was still warm out, so she didn't bother with putting shoes on. She spotted the small flowing river behind some trees, and smiled.

"_I might as well take a swim to rest my aching muscles," she thought as she approached the water._

She sighed and took off her black shirt and tight blue jeans. She then knelt down by the water and looked at her reflection.

The girl looking up at her had a sad pair of sapphire eyes and short silver hair. Her face was flawless, as was her body, which was only covered by a cream colored bra and matching underwear.

Maya touched the water, and the image reflected began to warp into many different shapes and images. She splashed some water on her face and took off the rest of her clothes.

She closed her eyes and jumped into the water and began to finally relax.

* * *

A black limo was slowly creeping its way thru the dark street. It was headed towards the Natsume's house.

"I'm still not sure why we're even here," complained the man with the cigarette poking out of his mouth. "Why are you even here, Mitsuomi?" he asked the man sitting near him, with the green hair.

Mitsuomi was sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes were closed. He looked pissed.

"If our president wants to be here, then he wants to be here! Don't question his motives!" shouted the pink haired girl. "Besides, the blond boy is causing problems with the Executive Council and we can't allow that to happen any longer!"

"Yeah... right...," Bunshichi puffed at his cigarette and looked out of the window. "We're almost there..."

Mitsuomi opened his eyes and peered out of the window too.

* * *

Maya was swimming laps around a small part of the river when she decided to relax again and she started floating on her back. Only her head and boobs were floating above the water.

"_What am I doing?...." she thought as she moved her right arm out of the water and tried to grab the moon._

At that moment, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a black image creep into her house. She flipped over and swam as fast as she could to get to her clothes.

"_Dammit... no matter what, I can't let them take the Reik)!" she thought as she hastily came out of the river, dripping wet._

She threw on her shirt and pants, not even bothering with her bra and underwear, and ran into her house. She ran towards the room where she hid the Reiki. She realized the door was still locked, so she tried searching other rooms.

She noticed one of the sliding room doors was some what ajar, and she ran towards it. She was just ten steps away from the room when the intruder darted out.

The intruder was taller than Maya, and probably taller than Bob, too. His hair was flaming red and was pulled back in a long ponytail. He had one spiky bang covering the right side of his face. His eyes were gray, with some green speaks in them. He wore a plain black shirt and baggy black pants. He was holding something in his left hand and Maya stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed what it was.

"That's... my necklace...," she gasped.

**Woop!! Well, I hope you liked it!! It's my first Tenjho Tenge story!! (and hopefully not my last)**


	2. Maya VS Emi

**AN: woop woop Chapter number 2! =] There's gonna be some violence! Always fun.**

* * *

"Wh-What are you-" Maya started to shout but was unable to finish her sentence.

The intruder stumbled a bit, but turned and ran to the opposite direction of Maya. Full of blinding rage, Maya chased after him. The man jumped onto the grass, and leapt onto the stone wall surrounding the Natsume's residence. Maya tried to catch up, but was dragging behind because of her clothes. They were sticking to her, making it hard for her to move freely.

The man turned around, winked and grinned, turned back, and jumped down onto the street, just as the limo was pulling up. The limo driver slammed on his brakes and didn't hit the guy. He froze for a second, but continued on running away.

"Wait!" Maya shouted as she leapt onto the stone wall. She noticed the limo, but looked away and searched for the man. She saw him about two houses away, waving his hand in triumph. She was about to jump down and chase after him but was in shock to see him run so fast.

As she stood there, Souichiro was running towards the house with Aya following behind. He looked confused and Aya looked worried as she ran, carrying a bag in her hands.

"Captain! What's going on? Who was that guy?" yelled Souichiro.

"Sis-sister! We br-brought you some dinner!" Shouted Aya, almost totally out of breath. She stopped and coughed and wheezed a little. Her breasts were bouncing up and down.

* * *

**AN: im not a fan of Aya... sorry! ^^"**

* * *

"Get out of my way!" shouted Maya, who had almost lost sight of the man. He was now even farther away, and there was almost no possibility in her catching up to him. She balled up her fists.

"Huh? Where...." Souichiro looked towards the direction that Maya was looking and he was able to see the man that was running. "I don't know what's going on, but you seem anxious to catch that guy... grr.. We got it!" He grabbed Aya's wrists and began to run off in that direction of the man.

"Wha?" Aya yelped as she threw the white bag at her sister. "Sister, you should put on a coat!" She shouted as she was being tugged away.

"No! You can't!" Maya screamed, but they were already too far away. _"Dammit... Why don't they listen to me?!" _

"You fools..." She whispered to herself. She watched as they got farther and farther away until she couldn't see them anymore. Then she looked up at the moon, yet again.

The limo door opened up, but Maya didn't even bother glancing down. For some reason, she knew they were going to show up. One way or another, it was going to happen. She sighed and moved her left hand to cover the side of her face.

"_Every time something like this happens... they always go off, even when I tell them not to... one day they're going to have to learn to listen to me... I'm their... their captain..." she thought as she stared off into space._

"You know... she's right, Natsume. I think you could cripple many men with your tits, but we're here on important business. As much as I don't mind seeing them, you should really put those away. Your tits will just distract us from our duty," Bunshichi grinned. He didn't even bother getting out of the limo. He had just opened up the door, and stayed seated next to Mitsuomi. Bunshichi puffed at his cigarette and waved at Maya.

Maya scratched her head and then looked down. She wasn't even slightly embarrassed.

"It's nice to see you too, Bunshichi," she said with a smile and a wave.

"Hey! Get out of my way!" Emi Isuzu demanded, as she tried to get out of the limo. She was sitting across from Mitsuomi and Bunshichi, so she had to move past them to get out. As she was trying to get out, she stuck her butt in the air, and Bunshichi moved his left hand and groped her. Emi turned around and punched him in the face, but he just shrugged and laughed, as Emi's face became more red.

She turned and stepped out of the car and she fixed her skirt and her hair. Her skirt seemed extra short today, or extra tight, it was hard for Maya to tell. Emi smiled a bit, and walked towards Maya.

"Hmph... you're here, too?" Maya said with disdain. She looked Emi up and down, snorted, and looked away with disgust.

Maya was about to jump off of the stone wall, when Emi grabbed four of her throwing knives and directed them at Maya. Maya faced her and grinned.

"What. The. Fuck. Was. That. For!?" Emi screamed, full of hatred and rage.

"Hmm?" Maya raised her head and just smiled back at Emi. "So... what are you doing here? What have I or anyone else done this time?" Maya yawned out.

Emi jumped and landed on a tree branch and pushed off of the branch with all of her might and landed on the stone wall, next to Maya. She lunged after Maya, but Maya leapt out of the way. Maya began to laugh and Emi started throwing her blades at her, one after the other. Maya did a backwards somersault and casually knocked the weapons aside.

"If you're going to fight me, you have to do better than that," Maya said, smiling. Her eyes looked fierce but her body just looked bored. She stood there, not even raising her arms or hands for defense.

Emi started rapidly throwing her blades at her, whilst forcing Maya to walk backwards. Because Maya wasn't able to see where she was going and because she was still a little wet, she stumbled a bit, and at that precise moment, one of Emi's attacks finally hit her. It nipped the right side of Maya's stomach, and tore her shirt a little. Maya grabbed her side and realized she was bleeding.

"Dammit... I liked this shirt a lot! You don't know how hard it is to find a shirt that fits a body like this!" Maya growled.

Emi started taunting her as Maya got her balance back. Maya lunged after Emi and hit her upside the head. Emi threw another throwing knife but Maya jumped out of the way, and side kicked her in the leg, and made Emi tumble. Emi quickly got up and started throwing more throwing knives but each time she threw one, Maya retaliated and hit her in the arms.

As the fight was going on, the other door of the limo was opened up with a small squeak. Mitsuomi stepped out of the limo and walked around to the other side and stood there as he watched the fight.

Maya jumped over Emi and pulled her pink hair with her as she landed. She let go as Emi was screaming, and her once super curly hair had gone completely straight. Emi started shouting curse words, and was about to strike Maya when Mitsuomi interrupted.

"Enough of this," he said.

Emi turned and faced him and knelt down. Maya looked at him with hard eyes and crossed her arms.

Mitsuomi walked closer to the girls and turned to Maya. "Maya, Souichiro has become a nuisance to Todo. Do something about it, or we will be forced to take action," he said, coldly.

"Gee..." Maya said, while moving closer to Mitsuomi, but still remained on the stone wall. "I wish I could. But I'm quite positive you saw what had just happened. That brat and my younger sister ran off, even after I told them not to," she shrugged and closed her eyes.

"Maybe... you should have trained them better," sneered Emi, who looked up at Maya, still extremely pissed.

Maya looked down at her and snapped, "Not everyone is obedient and loyal like you." Then she started to laugh and said, "Not everyone can be trained like a dog," and she grinned.

"Are you calling me a dog?!" Yelled Emi, who leapt up and faced Maya, with her hands full of weapons.

"Emi!" Mitsuomi commanded.

"R-right...! Forgive me!" said Emi, as she turned and faced Mitsuomi. "I'm sorry." She jumped off of the stone wall onto the tree branch and onto the ground without a sound. She bowed down to Mitsuomi, and went back into the limo.

"Do something about him, Maya," Mitsuomi said, never once did he look away from her. A few seconds later, he turned and walked towards the limo.

"Uh huh..." said Maya, as she watched Mitsuomi enter the limo. She sighed and waved goodbye to Bunshichi, who was waving goodbye to her in return. He closed the limo door, and Maya watched as they disappeared from her view.

Maya yawned, stretched, and moved her hand to her side.

"_Emi owes me a new shirt...and I'll make sure she gets me one!" _

She jumped down and landed on the same tree branch that Emi did, and then she jumped to the ground. Maya changed to her child form, and took off her pants, because her shirt was long enough to cover her now dry body. She walked over to where Aya had thrown the bag of food. She picked it up with her tiny hands and opened up the bag.

"_They better come back soon.... and with my necklace!" _

She looked at the food, and noticed everything was half eaten. _"Yum..... looks like I'll just save this for Aya later..." _And she walked towards the front of the house.

Maya walked into the empty house with her semi-wet clothes still in one hand and the bag of food in the other. She put her dirty clothes down into the laundry area and walked to the kitchen. It was getting late and Maya was getting worried.

"_I know that boy can take care of himself, but I'm not sure about Aya... she's still too young...," she thought as she turned the light on in the kitchen._

The kitchen was pretty clean, except for the leftover dishes in the sink. Ordinarily, Aya would do the dishes before she washed up for bed. But Aya wasn't home, so Maya decided to do the dishes. She placed the bag of food into the crowded refrigerator, and closed the door quickly. She shivered a little, and walked over to the sink and started doing the dishes.

Afterwards, she turned off the kitchen light and walked up to her room. She slowly entered, and went into her bathroom. She turned on the light that always made a slight humming sound. She usually gets annoyed of the sound but when she's alone, it somewhat soothes her.

Maya peered into the mirror and was embarrassed by what she saw.

"_I... look like shit..."_

Her hair was still a little damp and was sticking to her neck. She noticed her side was still bleeding and she had mud on her face. She couldn't recall how that happened, but it didn't really even matter.

She moved away from the mirror, and started the water to take a shower. After it warmed up enough, she took off the remaining shirt she was wearing, tossed it in the garbage. She changed back into her normal form and hopped into the shower.

_While lathering her hair, she thought, "I'm the only one Aya has left... I should've gone after her."_

She started to rinse her hair when she flinched. She sighed and realized that the shampoo was stinging at her wound. She put her hand on it and poured water onto her wound, in order to get the shampoo out. She then kept her right hand there, and continued on with her shower.

After she finished, she bandaged up her wound and changed into her pajamas. She threw on a dull red, almost pink-like shirt, and black bottoms. She looked at the clock and decided it was time for her to stop worrying about Aya and she went to sleep on her bed.

* * *

**AN: As of right now, im not sure if I really want Maya and Mitsuomi together. I love 'em! But im not sure yet. I guess you'll just have to keep reading! =]**


	3. The Arcade

**AN: and here's another chapter! =]**

* * *

"And there she goes," Bunshichi commented as the black limo drove away from the Natsume's house. Bunshichi was sitting on the left side of the limo, next to Mitsuomi. Mitsuomi was looking out of the window with a cold look.

Emi was sitting in the seat across from the two men. While trying to re-curl her hair, she made an annoyed sound and crossed her arms. "Stupid girl..." she said, talking about Maya, "I don't understand why I was not allowed to wipe off that stupid smirk of he-"

"Emi. Enough!" Mitsuomi commanded. He turned and glared at her with 'warning' written in his eyes. She cowered into her seat and looked away quickly. Bunshichi just laughed and Mitsuomi closed his eyes.

"So...," Bunshichi said while puffing on his cigarette, "why did I have to come with? Was I supposed to enjoy the show? Cuz if that's the case, you shouldn't have stopped them. It looked like they were gonna tear each other's clothes off, and hell, I'm sure we'd all like to see that. But that's not the point. I did tell you I would join only by name."

"I remember," Mitsuomi replied as he opened his eyes and looked at him. "I have a favor to ask of you."

"Oh you do?" Bunshichi said, taken aback. "It better be good, Takayanagi."

* * *

"_I better hurry... She's not going to like the fact that I've been out for so long..." Aya worried as she ran back home._

She was running down deserted streets and alleyways, after failing to find the intruder. It was still dark out, but Aya knew it was already the next day. As she rushed home, she fell down a few times and scraped her knees, but she knew if she didn't hurry, then she'd get a much worse punishment from her sister.

It was around 3 a.m. by the time Aya arrived home. She stopped in front of the door to catch her breath. After, she walked into the house quietly, took off her shoes, and snuck down the dark hallway.

"_There's not a single light on... hopefully that means she's asleep..." _

Aya crept up to her sister's room and snuck a peak. She opened the door and it made a soft 'creeking' sound and she froze. She looked over to where her sister's bed was, and sure enough, Maya was sound asleep. Aya slowly closed the door so it wouldn't make another noise, and took a breath. Then she went to her room, and fell asleep.

* * *

Maya woke up at precisely 8 o'clock. Her alarm clock went off an hour earlier, but she threw it up against a wall. Now it's on the floor, shattered to a thousand little pieces. Maya looked at it and shook her head. She hated being disturbed while she was trying to sleep.

"_Mmm... thank god it's Saturdayyyyyy," she yawned out, "that girl better be here..."_

Maya got out of bed, and picked up the broken clock and threw it into her green garbage can. Maya exited her room and went into Aya's room. She found Aya was still wearing her school uniform and was passed out on top of the sheets on her bed. Maya rubbed her head and chuckled as she closed the door.

She went down to the kitchen and decided to reheat some leftover noodles for breakfast.

After finishing breakfast, Maya walked back to her room and got changed. She put on a simple violet shirt and short jean shorts. Since she had nothing better to do, she decided to go down to the training area and work.

When she opened the door to the room, she was stunned to see someone was already in there. "Masataka, what are you doing here? It's Saturday, you should be out enjoying the sun," Maya said with a smile as she walked up to him.

Masataka was wearing dull green baggy shorts and a white over-shirt that was unbuttoned. He was already sweating, and it was dripping off of his face, and onto his chest. He stopped what he was doing when he heard Maya's voice. He raised up his left hand and started scratching his head. That caused his shirt to move a little, and revealed a little bit of his chest to Maya.

"Uh... hi there, Captain. I... couldn't really sleep, so I hope you don't mind that I'm here," he said, while feeling a little awkward by the whole situation.

There was a small gust of wind that blew at Masataka's shirt and it showed his whole chest. Because Masataka always wore a shirt, nobody would have ever believed that he would have a six pack. Maya noticed and she tilted her head and just gawked at him. He noticed and he stopped scratching his head and blushed a little at her somewhat forwardness.

"Ca-Captain, what are you-?"

"How long have you been here?" Maya interrupted. She looked away from his pecks and looked up at his eyes. He coughed a little and hurriedly looked away from her gaze.

"Uhm... two hours?... I think," he admitted.

"Two hours?! No. No. No. You should go out and enjoy yourself. Take a break from all of this training. You're still stronger than most of the people in the group, so they need to catch up," Maya commanded.

"But... I enjoy training," he pleaded. His eyes became puppy-dog-like.

Maya sighed when she saw that and looked away. "Well, I guess...," she smirked at him, "we can go out together. Truth be told, I'm not really in the mood to train anymore."

Masataka's eyes brightened up dramatically and he pulled Maya into a hug. She flinched and he quickly let her go, looking worried and puzzled.

"A-Are you ok? I.. Didn't mean to.." he said while looking ashamed.

"Huh?" she asked looking at him as if nothing happened. She played off the pain and said "it's nothing. I just.. Wasn't expecting that. I'll.. Meet you up front, ok?"

Masataka smiled and Maya quickly returned the smile back. With that, he left the room happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Maya lightly grabbed her right side, and she realized she was bleeding again. The blood had started to soak thru her violet shirt, so she had to change out of it before leaving.

When Masataka saw Maya walking up at him, he smiled but then quickly noticed her shirt was different.

"Hey... weren't you wearing a different shirt just now?" he asked while he checked out her baby blue shirt. It was tighter and had shorter sleeves than the one before.

"I decided to change out of it. It was too tight," she said simply as she walked ahead of him.

"_heh.. Like this shirt isn't..." Masataka said while smiling to himself._

"So, what are we going to do?" he asked while catching up to her.

Maya looked at him and smiled. "How about the arcade? It's been awhile since I've been there." And Masataka nodded and smiled back.

* * *

"Sir, we've just spotted Maya. She walked into the arcade with Masataka Takayanagi," Emi reported to Mitsuomi.

Just like the night prior, Bunshichi, Emi and Mitsuomi were sitting in a black limo, waiting to meet with Maya. Bunshichi casually looked out of the window.

"So.. She's out with another Takayanagi, huh?" he mumbled. Mitsuomi didn't hear him but if he did, he didn't react.

They all sat there in silence for a minute before Mitsuomi finally said "It's going to be a few hours," and he glanced at the arcade for a second and then looked down.

"Might as well get comfortable," Bunshichi said as he put his legs up on the opposite seat and sighed. Emi looked down at some paperwork and started scribbling out words.

* * *

"Ca-Captain! Wow! I didn't know you could play so well! I mean.. I heard you were good, but.. That was amazing!" Masataka said as he and Maya left the arcade.

Maya laughed and shook her head in disagreement. "I'm not that good! I do know of some people who can beat me, but besides...," she turned and looked at him. His shirt was still unbuttoned and it was really sunny out. "You should really button up your shirt. You'll probably get a sunburn if you don't and you don't need to be giving girls heart attacks when they see you," she said as she continued laughing.

Masataka blushed and went to grab the bottom button but missed. He looked at his hands and realized they were shaking. He laughed again and looked up at Maya who had stopped laughing. She was looking at him with worry written all over her face.

"I... guess I haven't been using my hands very often lately," he joked.

"That's rather hard to believe," Maya teased back.

Masataka blushed and shrugged. Maya moved in front of him and grabbed the bottom button. She had to move closer to him as she buttoned more buttons because she was standing in the sunlight and it was becoming more difficult for her to see each one. Also, his shirt was getting tighter on him as each button was buttoned.

When she reached the second to last button, Masataka looked down at her, and noticed her shirt looked a little discolored on the right side. They didn't eat anything yet, so it's not like anything was spilt on her. Also, it wasn't there before, so he knew something was up.

"_It must've just happened... but wait... earlier, when I hugged her, the moment my left arm brushed up against her side, she flinched...," Masataka thought._

"Captain...," he said as he pushed Maya's hands down before she buttoned the last button. He lightly touched her right side, and she jumped forward in shock and in pain.

* * *

Emi noticed everything that happened, and motioned to Bunshichi to watch. Mitsuomi glanced up and saw their faces were glued to the window facing the arcade.

"_Maybe she's moved on!" Emi thought with glee as she stared at them._

"_Uh-oh... this can't be good..." Bunshichi thought as he nervously eyed Mitsuomi after turning away from the window._

Mitsuomi looked at Bunshichi weirdly, and then looked past him, and saw Masataka and Maya. He had no expression what-so-ever.

"Well, uhh... I guess I should be going now..." Bunshichi announced loudly as he pushed Emi away from the door, and got in between Mitsuomi and the window. "Don't forget. You owe me," he said to Mitsuomi.

Mitsuomi glanced at him, nodded, and then closed his eyes. Bunshichi opened the limo door and quickly exited. Emi ordered the driver to move and the driver pulled out onto the street and drove away.

Bunshichi walked up to Maya and Masataka and expected to be greeted with a happy hello, but they didn't even notice him.

"Oh fine, don't say hello. Assholes..." he said.

Masataka looked passed Maya and finally acknowledged Bunshichi. "He-Help! The Captain is bleeding.."

Bunshichi flicked his cigarette away and rushed over to Maya's side. Maya had her eyes closed and was biting down hard on her lip. He looked at her worriedly and then noticed that Masataka was helping her keep her balance. He looked at his hands and noticed they were covered in blood.

"What the hell happened?!" he demanded.

"I-I don't know! We were just.. And then.. Blood. And.. I don't know what to do! She flinched and I-" Masataka struggled to say but Maya lost her balance again and he had to stop talking so he could catch her before she hit the ground.

"Captain!" "Maya!" The boys shouted simultaneously.

"We gotta get her to a hospital. Now." Bunshichi exclaimed.


	4. Hiromu

"Are you sure you're ok, Captain?" Masataka asked. He was looking down at Maya.

"Yup! I feel fine. I don't really remember what happened... but whatever," Maya shrugged it off.

"Well... I'm sure Bunshichi wants to see you. He's just outside of this room. Let me go get him," and Masataka left Maya's bedside.

Maya moved the hospital bed sheet and lifted up her shirt just enough so she could see her side. She looked down at the bandage covering her whole right side of her torso. She lightly glided her fingers over her side and flinched slightly.

"_Dammit... what is this?! Why does this keep happening..." she thought angrily._

She brought down her shirt and laid back down on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling and sighed a little.

"_Something's not right... it shouldn't keep bleeding like this..."_

* * *

"You've got it all wrong!" Bunshichi yelled into his cell phone, "they weren't-" "like hell!" "She just-" "DAMMIT! You're fucking impossible!" He slammed his cell phone shut and threw it up against a wall, shattering it to pieces. "Kid's so goddamn dense!"

Masataka just stood there in shock. Bunshichi turned around and saw Masataka looking at him. He just shrugged and said "Sorry about that. I was just having a small chat with a friend of mine. They're so... uh, what does it matter? Maya's awake, right? I'll go see her now," He walked past Masataka and entered the hospital room.

Masataka stood there and blinked a few times in confusion.

"_What... was that all about?" he wondered as he turned to face Bunshichi and Maya in the room._

Bunshichi was already next to Maya and was smiling and making Maya laugh. Masataka walked up to them and joined in on the conversation.

* * *

"You sure were lucky, Captain. They said all you needed was some rest, and it would stop the bleeding," Masataka said with glee. Maya was in her child form and was resting on his shoulders.

"Hmm?" she looked down at him. "Yeah, I guess so," she looked away, distractedly.

"What's got you down, Natsume? You should be happy that you have people like us to care for you," Bunshichi said while they were walking to her house.

Maya looked at him and gave him a questionable look. "What are you still doing with us anyway?" she eyed him up and down, "Did the Executive Council put you up to this?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I just felt the need to reconnect with you. I think all of the original members of the Juken Club should get together one more time," he replied with a grin.

Maya jumped down from Masataka's shoulder and faced them. "I appreciate your help, but I believe I can make it home by myself. It was nice to see you again, Bunshichi. And Masataka, be here at noon."

She turned and walked down the street that would ultimately take her home.

"Right...," Masataka said solemnly.

"We'll catch up again tomorrow," Bunshichi promised.

Masataka went right and Bunshichi went the opposite direction.

Maya walked into the quiet house and glanced up at the clock. It was about 3 o'clock and Aya was nowhere to be found.

"_Stupid girl... probably out trying to find that boy...." she decided to check Aya's room, just in case._

And there she was, still passed out on the bed. Maya walked down to the training room and picked up one of the katana's cases, and brought it with her back to Aya's room. She snuck up behind Aya and started smacking Aya on the butt with the case.

"Wake up Aya!" she yelled.

Aya leapt up into the air and tried to strike Maya in the head with her left leg but her right foot got intertwined in the unused messy blankets and she came crashing back down. She landed half way off of the bed and half way off of it.

"Si-Sister!" she half-gasped, half-complained.

"No, Aya! It's time to get up. I don't know what time you arrived home and I don't know what happened!"

"Oh yeah! Well, you see..." Aya jumped up onto her bed and started getting excited. "Souichiro told me to follow him, right? And so I did, or.. I tried, but then outta nowhere, he ran to the left, so of course, I tripped and when I looked up, he was gone! He ran sooo fast! And that's what took me so long!" she said with a smile.

"So you don't know then?" Maya asked, while getting a firmer grip on the case.

"Nope! Not a clue!" Aya replied with merriment.

"Aya!" Maya shouted as she started to smack her sister around with the katana's case for a few minutes. Aya jumped off of her bed and started running around the room with Maya following closely behind her. In the end, Aya's room ended up destroyed, she ended up getting hit at least ten times, and Maya was calm now.

"While you clean up this mess, I'll be out for it," Aya looked at her questionably, so Maya added, "I'll be at that boy's house, finding out what happened."

"You can't go! I want to see him toooooooo!!" Aya pleaded with her sister. Aya fell to the floor and grabbed onto Maya's tiny legs. Maya looked at Aya and slowly shook her head yes, and Aya leapt up and lifted Aya off of the ground into a hug.

"Ow! Put me down!" Maya demanded.

Aya put Maya down softly and looked worried.

"I can explain when we're on our way to the brat's house," she sighed and Aya started dancing around.

* * *

"Souichiro!" Aya purred as soon as he answered the door.

"What are-" he started but Aya quickly jumped on him and they both went crashing to the ground.

"I'm so happy you're safe! You could've called, you know! I was totally worried about you! Especially after I couldn't find you anywhere!" Aya cried out.

"Like you would've been awake to answer it..." Maya whispered and shook her head.

"Hey! Get off!" Souichiro pushed Aya off of him and he stood up, leaving Aya on the ground. "What are you doing here?" he asked while he leaned up against the door.

"I want to know what happened last night. Did you get my necklace from that guy?" Maya questioned. She looked at him with a determined look, but Souichiro just gave her a plain stare.

"I'm ok, by the way. I didn't get hurt or anything," he sarcastically said. "But I didn't know that's what you wanted..." he said while finally inviting them in.

Maya helped Aya up and Aya went bouncing into his tiny apartment. Dishes were all over the house, the table was sticky from spilt drinks, the floor had crumbs all over and clothes, both clean and dirty, were in a pile by the couch.

"S-sorry about the mess," he mumbled out, embarrassed. He tried tidying up a bit but Aya pushed him aside and started cleaning for him.

"Lemme take care of it! That's what a fiancée is supposed to do!" she said happily as she picked up his clothes and threw them into a hamper.

Souichiro walked over to the kitchen table and sat down, followed by Maya. Maya looked at him intently, waiting for his answer when finally he shook his head. Maya looked down.

"There wasn't really... anything I could do..." he started. He balled up his fist and hit the table. "If I woulda known you wanted that necklace, I would've.. I don't know."

"So what happened, then?" Maya asked, trying to avoid the 'clanks' and 'bangs' Aya was making while she was doing the dishes.

Souichiro stared at Maya's sapphire eyes for a minute or so before he finally said, "to be honest, I don't know."

"WHAT?!" Maya shouted and stood up, knocking over the kitchen chair she was previously sitting on. Aya dropped three plates into the sink and threw a wet wash cloth at Maya. Maya smacked it away and stared down at Souichiro.

"Don't scare me!" shouted Aya.

"Hey! I thought you said you were going to clean! Not make the mess even bigger!" Souichiro shouted at Aya. Aya nervously smiled and nodded her head as she walked over to the wash cloth, and back to the sink.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" Maya shouted at him.

"Look. All I know is he stopped running, said 'Hiromu', and when I went to slug him, I couldn't move! Now you explain that!" he snapped.

**AN: Hiromu is the first name of the author of 'Fullmetal Alchemist'.**

"Hiromu...," Maya said quietly as she sat back down. "I only... know of one man with that name but... the last time I saw him was.. About two years ago..." her eyes got wide as she remembered who he was.

"What is it?" Souichiro asked as he stood up. He saw her eyes get wide and then they went back to normal five seconds later.

"It's nothing, really... but I want my necklace back," Maya said, trying to change the subject a little.

"What's so special about this necklace? Can't you just buy another one?" He asked.

"That's... not the point! It was given to me by.. Someone dear to me..." Maya started saying quietly, but started to look hurt.

"Brother gave it to her," Aya answered.

Souichiro looked at Maya expectantly, but Maya just looked away. She looked around the room and wasn't surprised at what she saw. Not even a half an hour had passed, and yet the whole room was already cleaned. The dishes were stacked neatly after being washed and dried. The movies were back in their appropriate cases. The windows and mirrors were all washed. The table was no longer sticky and the floor was crumb free.

"I think it's about time to go," Maya told Souichiro.

"But we just got here!" Aya pouted.

"Y-yeah! You just got here!" Souichiro said, putting his hands on the table.

"Aya, you can stay here if Souichiro allows it, but I'm leaving," Maya said while heading for the door. She opened it but turned around to say, "Boy, meet at our house tomorrow around noon. You need to practice your punching because you're still too predictable," and she walked out of the room.

* * *

**AN: blah blah blah. Not that interesting of a chapter, but it was needed...**

**Butttt next chapter is sooo much better than this! I promise!**


	5. Hospital

Ordinarily, when Maya tells everyone that they're going to be training at a set time, she's the first one to arrive. Today, however, was different. It was about 11:30 a.m., and Maya was still laying about in her bed. Truth be told, she had never even fallen asleep. She wasn't able to fall asleep because of the innocent conversation she had had with Souichiro. Aya didn't check up on her when she returned home because she had figured Maya had a rough day.

Maya was still laying around in her bed and was staring at the plain white ceiling when Aya finally knocked on the door. "Sister?" she timidly asked as she walked into Maya's dark room. "It's a quarter to 12, and everyone's already waiting. Bunshichi is here, too. He arrived here first, about two hours ago..." she said as she moved over to Maya's blinds. She opened them, making the room extremely bright.

Maya moved over in her bed, and shielded her eyes. "I'm coming.... tell Bob to start running. Masataka can do whatever he pleases," Maya plainly said.

"But what about Souichiro?" Aya asked as she walked back toward the door.

"You help him with his training. He knows... what to do," Maya replied as she started rubbing her sapphire eyes. Aya smiled and walked into the hallway.

Maya stopped rubbing her eyes and stared at the door for a few minutes. She stretched a bit, and got out of bed. She stepped over to the bathroom, and took a shower.

* * *

Aya walked into the training room and was greeted by the waiting four men. Half were sitting, and half were laying around, but all of them looked bored. Aya told them what Maya had told her, and they all got to work. Bunshichi yawned and relaxed up against a wall and watched them.

Bob went outside and started running. Aya was bouncing about in the room, while dodging Souichiro's punches. Masataka picked up one of the katanas and practiced using it.

"Man... is this all you people ever do?" Bunshichi complained as he laid down on his side.

Masataka put down the katana and sat next to him. "Well... yeah. That's the whole point of being in this club. But... what are you doing here, anyways?" he asked Bunshichi.

"Ehh... Ordinarily I'd be working on my bike, but I don't have any leftover parts for it. So I decided to go out for a walk and I happened to stumble upon this street. So, I chose to stop by. Besides, I did tell Natsume I'd be coming over," he shrugged. "What's taking her so long? Back when I was apart of this club, she always wanted to fight someone."

"She's probably getting changed, just as we speak," Aya answered Bunshichi as she ran past him and Masataka. Souichiro was still chasing after her.

"Is that so... Hey, isn't Natsume's sister the one who chases that guy?" he asked Masataka.

"Uhh.. Yeah. She does that," Masataka said, sounding confused.

"But why? That kid is nothing but a loud mouth. He wouldn't even be able to fight his way out of a paper bag, even if the opening was right there in front of him," Bunshichi said while watching them.

Masataka laughed and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. "She.... claims to be in love with him."

"Hmm.. Well, he doesn't seem to be the least bit interested in her," Bunshichi replied lazily. He looked away and put his hand down his pants. "I mean, look at him; she has a look of love blazing in her eyes, and he just looks like he really wants to hit her."

"What? Now, now. They are training. But.. I'm sure he's interested in her. I mean... who wouldn't be?" Masataka looked at the two, who were now over in the corner. Then he noticed that every movement Aya made, her breasts would sway to the opposite direction. He quickly forgot what they were talking about and started staring at her breasts.

"Oh? And what about you?" Bunshichi looked up and noticed Masataka had a nose bleed. He had a little drool on the side, too. Bunshichi snapped his free hand in front of Masataka's face and Masataka looked down at him, while wiping his face. "I'm talking to you, kid."

"S-sorry Bunshichi," he blushed.

"I don't know what's with you Takayanagi's! Once a certain girl is involved, you all get blinded and stupid," he said taking his hand out of his pants.

"But.. What were you saying? What about me?" Masataka asked.

"Why would Aya choose that idiot over you? He's not in love with her and you... well, I don't have to tell you," he chuckled.

"You... you never know. He could be in love with her. He just... might have trouble showing it to her," Masataka said, some what quietly.

"That's not what he told me when he and that big foreign guy barged into the Executive Council's Office, a couple of weeks back," Bunshichi yawned.

"Huh? When exactly was that?" Masataka asked, while giving him a weird look.

"Around the time when Natsume's younger sister spent the night over at your house," he looked at Masataka who blushed and looked away quickly. "Now.. What were his exact words...." he tried to recall, "oh yeah... 'That midget chick happens to be the only girl I've fallen in love with'."

"Y-You mean C-Captain?" Masataka looked back at him.

"The very one," he replied.

"But... do you think she feels the same?"

"You tell me."

Masataka thought for a minute, as Bunshichi turned his attention back to Souichiro and Aya.

"Hey Aya... Why don't you use your long strong legs and kick that kid in the head?" Bunshichi yelled over to her.

"Shouldn't you be with that meathead today?" Souichiro shouted as he chased after Aya.

"Hey punk! Watch what you're saying!" Bunshichi snapped. "Mitsuomi said he was busy today."

"So you felt the need to bother us with your presence?" Maya chuckled as she entered the room, with a towel in her hands.

"Maya Natsume.... You certainly did take your time," Bunshichi said.

She walked into the room and sat down next to Masataka and Bunshichi. She was wearing a dark purple V neck shirt and loose dark blue jeans. She began drying her hair with the towel as Masataka stood back up and went back to his training.

"So, I see that brat and my sister. Masataka is training again. But where's Bob? He should have been done after less than five minutes," she asked as she looked around the room.

"Knowing him, he probably ditched training and is now spending the day with his girlfriend," Souichiro said as he was still chasing around Aya. He was almost fully out of breath and was beginning to sweat.

"Maya's right! Your punches are predictable!" Aya chirped. Souichiro's face turned dark red, and he used all of his might to hit her but missed and he tripped over his left foot and fell to the floor.

Everyone but Souichiro started laughing and Bunshichi stood up.

"I uhh.. Just remembered something. I have to make a phone call," he said as he went outside. Maya looked at him for a second and then turned to face Masataka. She threw the towel on the ground and stood up. She walked over by Masataka and decided to join him in his training. Souichiro stopped chasing Aya and he crept over to the back door. Aya snuck up behind Souichiro and wrapped her arms around him. Souichiro quickly turned around and removed her arms.

"Shh..." he whispered as he crept closer to the door. Aya turned around and decided to keep an eye on her sister and Masataka. They were facing the opposite direction and Aya turned to face Souichiro again and nodded her head. They both knelt down and slowly opened the door a smudge. They heard Bunshichi's voice and they leaned in to listen.

"What?!" "She doesn't-" "You told him?!" "Dumb bitch, you got it all wrong! She still-" "Well fuck you too!" he snapped into his phone.

"Boy! Aya! What are you two doing?" Maya snapped.

Souichiro closed the door quietly and looked at Aya who just shrugged. Maya started to walk towards them when she winced and fell down to her knees. She started to clutch her right side again and Masataka quickly ran over to her side. Souichiro and Aya quickly stood up as Bunshichi opened the door.

"Sorry about that, I.. What the hell?" he stammered.

"I... guess we're going back to the hospital," Masataka told Bunshichi as he tried to help Maya stand on her legs.

* * *

"Weren't you just here?" the nurse asked Maya.

"Yesterday," Maya replied while flinching. Bunshichi put Maya down on the hospital bed but he accidently brushed up against her wound. 'Sorry' he mouthed and he walked out of the room to join the others.

The doctor walked up to the bed with his nose buried in Maya's hospital chart. "Natsume. Natsume? Weren't you here already? Wasn't it for some cut you had?" he looked up and Maya nodded her head. "Did it reopen?" he asked her.

"More like... it never closed," she admitted.

"Hmm..." he made a sound as he whispered something to one of the nurses. The nurse looked at Maya sadly, and left the room. She returned shortly with another nurse. She was rather plump for a nurse and had short curly brown hair. The plump nurse smiled at Maya, but the other nurse whispered something to her, and her smile quickly turned to a slight frown. The plump nurse pushed Maya back lightly so she would lay down. The smaller nurse lifted up Maya's shirt slowly and the doctor walked over to Maya's right side.

He lightly touched her skin, about 3 inches away from her wound, and Maya jerked roughly. "Nurses, hold her down please."

The moment the nurses touched Maya's wrists, her eyes changed from sapphire to deep dark brown. Her hair became pure white and Maya started to shake. She shoved the nurse on the left so hard that the nurse was thrusted up against the wall and was knocked out. Maya grabbed the other nurse's wrist and snapped it. The doctor fell to the floor and knocked over one of the tables within the room.

Aya and the others heard the noise and came rushing in. They all had stunned looks on their faces when they saw the doctor on the ground, one nurse knocked out up against the wall, and the other nurse holding her broken wrist, screaming. They all looked at Maya as she stood up on the hospital bed.

Bunshichi moved over to the left side of the bed and Masataka went to the right. They both grabbed her arms and pulled her back down onto the bed. Souichiro jumped up onto the bed and started shaking her to snap out of it. Aya helped the doctor up and then watched as the other guys struggled with controlling Maya.

"All we-we tried t-to do was..." the doctor started spitting out as he watched them all, "we t-tried to hold her d-down and then she.. She.. Went.. Insane!"

Maya's hair went back to normal, and she stopped struggling and passed out.

* * *

Maya could hear someone talking but she was unable to make out what they were saying. She felt someone touching her arms and another person started holding her hand. She tried to open her eyes but she realized it was too bright to see, so she decided to wait until she got used to it. The person holding her hand let go, and it sounded like they walked away. The other person stopped touching her arms, and held her hand instead. A minute later, someone had put a cold wet wash cloth on Maya's head.

"Get...it off," Maya whispered quietly.

"Sister!" Aya jumped up and started shaking her. Maya opened her eyes and saw Bob, Masataka, Souichiro, and her sister standing around her. She was still laying in the hospital bed. It was also very bright in her room. The doctor walked up to Maya, and Aya moved out of his way. He leaned down into her face and checked her eyes.

"What day is it?" he asked her as he leaned out of her face.

"What day...? It's Sunday," Maya replied, with a confused look on her face. Masataka and Souichiro sat back down on the chairs and Bob scratched his head. "Am I wrong?"

"It's not... Sunday anymore..." Aya started as she looked at Maya with disappointment.

"So.. It's Monday then?" Maya assumed.

"No. It's Wednesday morning," the doctor answered. He turned to look at the electronics Maya was hooked up to. "I'll be right back," he said and he left the room.

"So I've been out for a while then....," Maya said more to herself rather than anyone else.

"Not exactly," Aya said. "You've been awake a couple of times but you would only say 'I'm sorry' and 'he deserves better'. Then you'd fall back asleep."

"W-what?" Maya stuttered. One of the last thing she remembers thinking before the nurse's held her down was of her brother. She thought about how he must've felt every time he was brought into the hospital. After that though, she thought about the time he went to the hospital after he saw her on the floor of one of the rooms in school, almost naked. Her final thought was of how Mitsuomi came into the room and tried stopping Shin from killing Emi. Maya had screamed out his name and because of that, Mitsuomi had gotten hurt. It was all her fault. He deserved better.... "But.. Uhh.. Why aren't you in school?" she asked them, trying to forget where the conversation had gone.

"Late start," Bob and Souichiro said together and grinned.

"We've also been visiting you before and after school, and whenever we have the time," Masataka said with accomplishment.

They all started talking about what's been happening at school while Maya's been out when the doctor walked in with a clipboard.

He waited until they stopped laughing about Souichiro slipping on spilt soup in the lunchroom before he began. "It really is an odd circumstance..." he said as he turned to the second page of Maya's chart. "We ran some tests while you were unconscious and we were unable to figure out why you're wound won't heal. As far as we can tell, there's nothing wrong with your blood, but... still... have you been in any fights recently?" he looked up at her.

"Uhm..." she thought back, "I did... fight Emi Isuzu... and she tore my shirt.. And she gave me this wound!"

"Hmm.. You don't happen to have the weapon at home or something?"

"Of course not," Maya crossed her arms and looked insulted.

"I see..." he said as he walked out of the room again.

"Well, I guess you know what that means!" Bob said as he and Souichiro grinned.

"What?" Aya looked at them, with a confused look.

Souichiro stood up and lifted his balled up fist. "A fist in the face should get Emi Isuzu to talk!"

**AN: next chapter is gonna have a lot of violence! You've been warned....**


	6. Tite

Bunshichi arrived at school at 10 a.m., exactly an hour before school was to start. He parked his crappy old station wagon at one of the many empty parking spots.

"_This ain't right. Nobody's even here, so why should I be here?" he complained to himself as he got out of his car._

Not only was the parking lot empty, but so was the school. There wasn't a single student in the hallways. He didn't even see any of his teachers as he made his way to the Executive Council's Office.

As he walked thru the Executive Council's hallway, there was still no one in sight. Most students wouldn't arrive until at least five minutes before the bell would ring. Where as the teachers wouldn't arrive until five minutes after the bell.

Bunshichi opened the doors to the room and wasn't the least bit shocked to find only two people within the room.

"What the hell do you need me for?" he loudly complained.

Mitsuomi was calmly sitting at his desk, filling out some paper work while Emi was busy filing everything. When Bunshichi complained, Emi's face puffed up like a jigglypuff and she slammed her foot down.

"You didn't have to show up this early. I assumed you wouldn't arrive until last period, so we would have our talk after school," Mitsuomi said while looking up at Bunshichi.

"So you mean I coulda visited Maya this morning? I haven't gone to see her since Sunday and believe me, she wasn't doing too well," Bunshichi said more to himself rather than anyone else.

"What do you mean 'she wasn't doing too well'?" Emi asked. She didn't even bother to stop filing.

"Ha! Like you don't already know! You arrogant woman!" Bunshichi shouted at her as he was racing towards her.

"What was that?!" Emi screamed as she started throwing everything she could find at him.

Bunshichi was about to hit Emi when Mitsuomi stepped in between them. "What's the meaning of this?" he demanded, looking at Emi and then Bunshichi.

Bunshichi raised his hands in defeat and started to back away. He fell into a chair and put his hands back down. "If she won't tell you, then neither will I."

"Sir," Emi said while trying to get Mitsuomi's attention, "I have no clue what he's talking about."

"Yeah, play the innocent game," Bunshichi coughed.

"Tell me what's going on," Mitsuomi said firmly.

"Hmph. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head off about," Bunshichi replied. He crossed his arms and Emi and Mitsuomi went back to what they were doing previously.

Every five minutes or so, a member of the Executive Council would walk into the room, would say hello to everyone, and then leave right away. Eventually, it was time for class, so everyone left the room.

* * *

Since Bunshichi forgot his lunch at home, he decided to go see if he could take someone else's lunch. He roamed the halls and found no one with lunches. He decided to go to the Executive Council's room because somebody there is bound to have a lunch just laying around.

"Mitsuomi! You're looking big and muscular today! Now, you don't have any need for that food, do you? I'm so much smaller than you and-" Bunshichi said as he entered the room and saw Mitsuomi at his desk.

Mitsuomi interrupted Bunshichi's little speech, as he handed Bunshichi his lunch, without even looking up. Bunshichi smiled and grabbed the lunch and began eating it right away. Emi scowled at the sight of him, but Bunshichi just smiled back at her and stuck out his tongue with food still in his mouth. Emi rolled her eyes and looked away.

"Don't you have a job to finish?" she asked.

"Hrm?" he almost choked on his food because he was eating too fast. He swallowed hard and took the bottle of water that was on Mitsuomi's desk. "Yeah," he finally spat out, "but none of them are here today. Hell, if I were them, I wouldn't show up what with their captain being in the hospital." He started drinking the rest of the water.

Mitsuomi shot straight up and stared at Bunshichi. Bunshichi just shrugged, having forgotten that he didn't tell anyone about Maya being in the hospital.

"Aren't you supposed to be watching that blond loud mouth?" asked Shinobu Kagurazaka just as Mitsuomi opened his mouth to say something. Mitsuomi changed his mind and went back to his paperwork and Emi eyed Mitsuomi suspiciously.

Shinobu was leaning up against the wall, right next to the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony. He was originally admiring his face and bod when he noticed Souichiro. Bunshichi stood up and walked next to him. Sure enough, he saw Souichiro picking up random people in the courtyard. He was shouting at them, and then was throwing them to the ground after they shook their head no.

"Bunshichi, take care of him," Emi commanded.

"Why should I listen to you?" he threw his food onto the floor.

"Because," she crossed her arms and stuck her nose into the air, "you're fond of him, aren't you?"

"What? I never even said that! Stop putting words in my mouth!" he shouted back.

"Just do it," Mitsuomi told him.

Shinobu offered the katana he had in his hands to Bunshichi, but he declined.

"Ah? Damn..." Bunshichi walked out of the room and slammed the door shut. "I'm always the god damn baby-sitter..." he mumbled.

Bunshichi pushed every person out of his way as he made his way down to the front of the school building.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled as he noticed Aya, Masataka and Bob were there, too. "Knock it off."

"Oh! Mr. Tawara, Souichiro was just hoping he could get in trouble, so Emi would come and then we could talk to her," Aya said as she helped the people up off of the ground.

"Don't call me 'Mr. Tawara' and what do you want with Emi?" Bunshichi asked although he already knew the answer.

"Oh, come on! We're not stupid!" Souichiro shouted as he pushed people back down to the ground.

"Captain told Aya, and Aya told all of us," Bob said whilst cracking his knuckles.

"Why don't you go to the Executive Council's Room? Wherever Mitsuomi is, Emi's most likely to be with him. And seeing that Mitsuomi is always in the Council's Office, Emi's there about 99% of the time," he explained to them while yawning.

"Take us!" all four of them said.

"_This isn't going to be good...." Bunshichi thought as he led them to the room._

"Just don't go barging in. They don't-" he started to tell them but Souichiro and Bob ran on ahead once they saw the Council's sign hanging up.

Bunshichi ran even faster than them and he ripped open the door. "Emi, watch out for these-" he tried to warn her but at that moment, Souichiro and Bob kicked him hard in the back and he went flying into the room.

Bob ran up to Emi and pushed her up against the wall. Masataka and Aya rushed into the room and apologized to Emi, Mitsuomi and Shinobu. Everyone else who was in the room rushed out of it as soon as they could.

Mitsuomi stood up and almost knocked over his chair in anger. "What's the meaning of this?" he demanded to know.

"B-Big brother..." Masataka whispered.

"Why don't you ask this pink haired freak?" Souichiro snorted as he walked up to her. She couldn't move her hands because Bob held them together tightly, so she would be totally defenseless.

"I didn't do anything!" Emi shouted as she struggled greatly to move.

"Don't you see something wrong here?" Souichiro asked as he flicked her on the forehead.

"You're a lot shorter than I would've imagined!" she said sarcastically and Bob started to laugh.

"Hey! Who's side are you on?" he shouted at Bob. Bob shrugged a little and grabbed onto Emi with more force.

"Hey kid," Bunshichi sputtered as he tried getting up from the floor. Aya rushed over and helped him up to his feet. "She doesn't have a clue about what you're asking her. I mean... they just found out that Maya's in the hospital."

Masataka glanced at his brother and realized he was shaking. Mitsuomi noticed Masataka was looking at him, so he sat back down in his seat and closed his eyes in an annoyed expression.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Souichiro shouted.

"Hey Emi... where do you get your 'throwing knives'?" Masataka asked her.

Emi stuck her nose up in the air and looked the other way.

"Emi, tell him. It's important..." Bunshichi kinda begged, but still, she refused to say. Bob started putting more force on her.

Emi finally gasped out, "Some guy named Tite. Ok? Are you happy now?" Bob relieved some of the pressure but didn't let go.

**AN: Tite is the first name of the author of Bleach**

"Did this Tite person tell you anything about the throwing knives?" Masataka asked while inching closer to her, Souichiro and Bob.

"No. Of course not," Emi said, giving him the evil eye. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Remember the fight you had with Natsume?" Bunshichi said while rubbing his back.

"I always fight with her. How was the last time any different?" she asked, looking at Bunshichi with distaste.

"You cut my sister, and now she won't stop bleeding," Aya chimed in. "And... there's something... wrong," she started but then her dragon's eye got a hold of her. Aya saw Maya entering the room, looking like she did when she went 'insane'. Then she saw Bunshichi, Souichiro, Bob and Emi lying on the floor. The final thing she saw was Mitsuomi getting his ass kicked by Maya. His eyes looked blank and his face was covered in his blood. Then she was brought back and she knew she couldn't let that happen.

"Maybe... we can find something in her blood..." Masataka wondered, out loud.

"But the doctor said there was nothing wrong with her blood," Bob remembered.

"I... know this one girl who's really smart and good at science. Maybe she can help..." Masataka said.

"It's worth a shot," Bunshichi agreed.

"But this Tite guy.. Who the hell is he? Where can I find him?!" Souichiro shouted at Emi. He pushed Masataka out of the way and got in her face.

"He has flaming red hair that's pulled back in a pretty small ponytail. He also has one spikey bang covering his face. His eyes are gray and he goes to this school, so I'm sure you could find him here," Emi said expecting Bob to let her go for a job well done, but he didn't.

Aya's eyes got wide as she realized Maya was standing outside of the doorway. "NOOOO!" she shouted but it was too late.

"Like that guy down there?" Shinobu said, pointing out someone who was standing in the courtyard.

At that moment, Maya walked into the room. She was dressed in her school uniform, despite being kicked out, but something was off. Her right side had a small red spot, meaning she was still bleeding. Her eyes were dark brown again, and her hair was pure white. She looked pissed and everyone turned and were frozen at the sight of her.

**AN: sorry for the cliff hanger!! This chapter was getting way too long, so I split them up into 2 chapters. There's gonna be an amazing amount of violence, and a teeny tiny bit of love! Woo!**


	7. Mitsuomi VS Maya

"Dammit!" growled Bunshichi as he ran over to Maya and tried to restrain her. "Bob!"

Bob let go of Emi and she dropped to the floor as he rushed over to help Bunshichi. Bunshichi grabbed onto her left side and Bob grabbed onto her right side. Aya quickly ripped a bit of her skirt. Aya passed the cloth to Masataka and he nodded in understanding. Souichiro ran and ripped Maya's shirt a little but Maya got out of Bob's grip and pushed Souichiro out of her way. She punched Bunshichi in the face and he went flying. He landed hard onto a chair and was unable to move. Maya backhanded Bob as he tried to get a hold of her again, and she kicked Souichiro in the stomach. Bob went flying into Mitsuomi's desk, and Souichiro went flying and landed next to Bunshichi's feet. While she was busy with them, Masataka ran up to her, ripped more of her shirt, dodged her attack, and wiped Maya's cut. He ran out of the room and began his search for the girl who might be able to help them.

Maya looked at Mitsuomi, who was still sitting down. Everyone in the room watched as Maya stood there for a few seconds, but instead of fighting him, she walked right past him, towards the sliding doors. She turned to look at Shinobu and grabbed the katana from his hands. Shinobu fell to the floor and bowed his head.

"Wimp!" Emi said to him as she went to attack Maya. Maya took the katana out of the case and threw it at Emi. She barely missed and Emi fell to the floor, gasping in surprise.

Maya turned and look at Aya, who was too scared to move. Maya turned away and everyone watched as Maya opened the sliding glass doors and jumped onto the balcony's railings. A soft breeze lifted up her skirt as she searched for the red headed fellow.

"She does know that we can see her underwear..." Souichiro said as he started to have a nose bleed.

"Like that matters!" Bunshichi said and kicked Souichiro in the head. Souichiro went flying into Bob and he punched Souichiro before he crashed into him. Souichiro was then knocked into Aya, and she fell on top of him.

Maya spotted the guy and picked up the katana's case. She lifted up her left leg, which revealed her whole behind, and she threw the case at the guy. It hit him in the head, and he fell to the ground automatically. Maya then leapt off of the railing and used the other railings to slow her down as she reached the ground.

Mitsuomi stood up and started to walk out of the room. "Mitsuomi, I know what you're going to do, but you can't!" Aya pleaded. "You'll get hurt...and..."

Mitsuomi stopped for a moment and said "Did you see it with your Dragon's Eye?"

She nodded and Mitsuomi started walking again. "But! You'll....die..." Aya whimpered.

"I'm going to die either way. It might as well be by her hands," and with that, he left everyone in the room.

"We can't let him do this alone!" Aya shouted at everyone. She stood up, but accidently stood up on Souichiro's crotch. He yelped and she fell back on him, making him yell this time.

"The girl's right!" Emi ordered them. "Let's split up. Half of us help Mitsuomi. The other half should help Masataka."

They nodded in agreement and they dispersed. Emi, Aya and Souichiro went to find Masataka. They looked in each classroom but because lunch was over, classes had started, making it difficult for them to locate Masataka. Finally, Emi saw him running around with the dirty cloth in hand and they all tried finding that girl, together.

Maya skipped the last railing and landed on the ground with a loud 'thud'. She slowly walked up to the guy laying on the ground and he looked confused. She picked him up by the collar of his school shirt and started punching him in the face, repeatedly. He lifted up his hands and put them up against her waist, expecting something to happen but it didn't work. She dropped him and he landed on his knees. She moved her right leg back slightly and then forcibly kicked him in the side.

Maya went to pick up Tite again when Mitsuomi punched her out of the way. "I'm your next opponent," he said with a cold expression.

"Aya, do you think you can use your dragon's eye?" Masataka asked. He, Souichiro, Emi, and Aya were running down, now abandoned, hallways in the school.

"Huh?" Aya tilted her head at Masataka.

"So you could find this girl," snapped Emi.

"Oh... I... can try.. What does she look like?" Aya asked, feeling embarrassed.

"She has curly blond hair, and big pink eyes. She always wears her school uniform and has a freckle by her nose," Masataka said, trying to remember.

Aya nodded her head and tried to concentrate on the girl. She searched each room until one door started to glow red. She entered the room and heard a girl's name being called. Just as she was about to see what the girl looked like, she was brought back.

"Is her name Katherine?" Aya asked suddenly. Masataka nodded his head and Aya pointed to a room up the hall. Souichiro, who was closest, wrenched open the door and ran into the room.

He searched the room and started calling her name and finally the blond girl peered around the edge of a science lab table. She was sitting behind what looked like a lab experiment. The table was covered with different sized tubes. Some were filled with blue liquid, where as others were purple. She was wearing protective goggles and had gloves on. "Yes?" she quietly said while staring at Souichiro.

Masataka ran into the room, followed quickly by Emi and Aya. "Katherine!" Masataka shouted happily. He walked up to her and she gave him a hug.

"What are you doing here? Do you need help again with your theories?" she teased as she smiled at everyone.

"Actually-" Aya started.

"You need to find out what's in this blood," Emi commanded. She shoved Aya out of her way, and grabbed the blood soaked cloth from Masataka and she threw it at Katherine. Katherine looked at Masataka with wide eyes and he just shrugged and nodded.

* * *

Maya stood up quickly and stared at Mitsuomi. Mitsuomi smirked and wrapped his arms around her. She punched him in the chin and she managed to get his grip to lighten a bit. Maya fell to the ground and kicked Mitsuomi's feet and he tripped. She ran around to his back and pulled one of his arms forcibly down and he leaned back. She punched his right side but he grabbed her arm before it touched him. He pulled her arm and threw her into the air.

Before she moved out of reach, she kicked him in the head. She landed on her arms and she pushed off of the ground and went to kick him in the head again but he grabbed her leg and threw her to the ground. She tried to stand up but fell back down.

He had broken her right leg and she looked at him with her eyes full of hatred. He stood on top of her and she used her other leg and made him lose his balance. He fell on top of her, almost crushing her, but he put his weight on his hands as he pushed up.

From the sidelines, their fight looked like a lover's quarrel. Girl smacks guy. Guy stays calm. Guy ends up directly on top of girl.

She grabbed onto his left arm and squeezed it, hard. He was forced to lean to his right and Maya pushed him over to his back. She forced her body onto his and straddled him. He looked up at her. Her eyes were darker than ever and she had never looked so pissed. She had some blood coming out of her mouth and she was sweating everywhere.

He started to smile and Maya went into a frenzy. "STOP THAT!" she shouted as she started punching him in the face repeatedly. She rotated her punches, and Mitsuomi's head kept being forced the opposite direction.

"_So... this is how I'm going to go out..." he thought as he smiled again, causing Maya to hit him even harder._

He closed his eyes and waited for the last and final punch. As Maya was getting ready for it, Bunshichi pulled her arm back and pinned her to the ground. Bob helped him and Mitsuomi opened his eyes in shock.

He looked up at Bunshichi, who in return, grinned and said "Sorry we took so long."

* * *

"You sure this'll work?" Masataka asked Katherine as she removed the test tube from the burner.

"I'm positive! I've never seen this before, but I have read about it," Katherine said as she poured the liquid into a small vile. "Now," she said, turning to face them, "you have to make sure she drinks all of this. It will take a minute or two to kick in, but it'll definitely work."

Souichiro picked up the vile and gave her a thumbs up. Aya and Masataka thanked Katherine and they ran out of the room.

"I wonder how Mitsuomi is doing..." Aya said as they ran thru the crowded halls. It was passing period, so people were everywhere.

"Bunshichi and the foreigner can take care of Maya," said Emi.

"You don't remember what happened in the Council's Room?!" shouted Souichiro. "We all got our asses beat!" Emi looked at him, annoyed and then looked out of the window. She stopped when she saw Mitsuomi on the ground, causing everyone to stop running as well.

"We don't have time for this!" Souichiro shouted.

"It's.... Mitsuomi..." Emi said quietly. She pointed at him and everyone looked.

Souichiro scowled, and kicked the window.

"What the hell are you doing?" Emi shouted.

"Wouldn't it be faster to just make your own door? It beats running around the school," he said as he jumped out of the window. Masataka scratched his head and Emi crossed her arms. Aya sighed and then jumped out of the window, after Souichiro.

"What the?" Bunshichi said when he saw Souichiro running towards them. Souichiro was shouting something and was waving his arms. Bob turned and shrugged. Maya was still struggling to get free when Souichiro and Aya finally arrived. He threw the vile at Bunshichi as Aya knelt beside Mitsuomi. She tried helping him up but he was too heavy, so Souichiro helped, too.

"You gotta get her to drink it all," he told Bunshichi just as he caught the vile, but before he had the chance to pour it into her mouth, she got free of his grip and pushed him aside. Bob tried to hold on but she kicked him in the crotch.

With Aya and Souichiro's help, Mitsuomi stood up. "I'll hold her," as he walked towards her, knowing full well that one more punch would do him in.

"You sure about this?" Bunshichi asked as he opened the vile and got ready.

Mitsuomi nodded and dodged Maya's attack and went behind her. He grabbed her arms and pinned them to her sides. Then he tightly hugged her waist, not letting her arms move. Souichiro opened her mouth and she almost tried to bite him. Bunshichi quickly poured all of the liquid into her mouth but she tried to spit it out. She kicked Souichiro out of her way and Bob slammed her mouth shut and he lifted her head so the liquid traveled down her throat.

Maya started thrusting around and kicked Bunshichi and Bob out of her way. She broke loose from Mitsuomi's grip and she pushed away from him.

Masataka and Emi finally showed up when they saw Maya and Mitsuomi were just standing there. Emi decided to attack and she started to throw her throwing knives when Maya leapt into the air. She landed right next to Emi and punched her hard into the ground. She turned and looked at Masataka, who looked ready to fight but not even a second later, he was on the ground and Maya was walking back to Mitsuomi.

She balled up her fist and focused all of her kiinto it and was about to strike him.

"Sister! Stop!" Aya shouted.

Mitsuomi closed his eyes in defeat. He felt the impact of Maya's hand on his cheek and waited for his death but was shocked when it didn't happen. He lifted his hand and felt his cheek. What he felt wasn't a punch but was a smack. He looked at Maya. Maya's eyes were still brown and they were starting to get watery. She threw herself to the ground and her hair changed back to normal.

"I'm...I'm so sorry..." she whispered to him. Aya and the others rushed over to Maya's side. Emi was right next to Mitsuomi when he realized what happened. St the last second, Maya came back and realized what was happening and she changed her attack.

"It's... over," Masataka said, sighing.

"Sir, we need to get you to a hospital," Emi reported.

Aya looked around at everyone. "We all need to go to a hospital," she said.

"Dammit... I'm surprised we don't have our own personal room yet," Bunshichi complained as he helped Maya up.

"I'm sorry... Everyone..." Maya told everyone as her eyes returned to sapphire.

"Don't worry about it, Captain," Masataka said as they all made their way back to the hospital.

**AN: wooo! Good ole violence! **


	8. Hospital Conversation

"Captain said she would visit you guys once she's done talking to Bunshichi," Masataka told Bob and Souichiro.

Bob was laying on a hospital bed with Chiaki at his side. When Maya kicked him in the crotch, she shattered his pelvis bones. It was embarrassing for him at first to be admitted into the hospital because of it, but once he saw all of the nurse's reactions upon seeing him naked, he started feeling good about it.

Souichiro was in the next hospital bed, leaning up. He broke open his skull and was lucky that he didn't go into a coma. He had a little trouble with hearing but he was good at reading lips, so he understood what Masataka said.

Masataka left the room to go help Aya with the lunches. They were the only ones who got out of the fight without any major injuries. Masataka had a few scratches here and there but Aya was unscathed. He walked up behind Aya and smelt the food. "Yum! That smells amazing! But... why are there so many?" he asked as he counted the trays. "Shouldn't there only be five?"

"One for me. One for you. One for Souichiro. One for Bob. One for my sister," she sang happily, "one for Bunshichi, one for Emi and one for Mitsuomi."

"Aya...." Masataka said as he smiled. "You're much too nice to us all!" Aya smiled back and shrugged.

They finished making the lunches and started stopping by the rooms. They gave Bob and Souichiro their food first and then they went to Bunshichi and Emi's room.

"Hello!" Aya said as they entered the room. She looked around but couldn't see her sister anywhere. "Did Maya leave already?" she asked Bunshichi.

Emi was asleep, so she was unable to answer. She had broken her arm and twisted her ankle.

Bunshichi was surrounded by all of the nurses on the first floor but when Aya walked in, they all left the room quickly. Bunshichi looked disappointed and shook his head at Aya. He broke some of the bones in his back, so he was barely able to move. "Natsume hasn't even been here."

Aya looked at Masataka and he looked confused. They gave Bunshichi and Emi their food and left the room. "Where do you think the Captain is?" Masataka asked as they walked to the next room.

They opened up the door but Aya quickly closed it but didn't shut it all of the way. "What?" Masataka whispered. Aya put her finger to her mouth and pointed into the room. They both peered thru the crack of the door and saw Maya in her wheelchair, next to Mitsuomi.

Mitsuomi had broken Maya's leg and being in the wheelchair was the fastest way she could travel. In return for breaking her leg, she broke Mitsuomi's wrist and almost gave him a concussion.

"Aya, Masataka," Maya said. They opened the door and walked into the room. They gave Mitsuomi his food and were about to give Maya her food but she shook her head. "I'm going to eat in my room," she told them. She was looking down at the floor and was biting her lip. She looked up at Mitsuomi who was looking at her. "I just wanted to apologize for what I did to you and... I appreciate what you did for me," she looked away and started to wheel herself out of the room. Aya waved good-bye to Mitsuomi and pushed Maya's wheelchair.

"Brother..." Masataka said while still standing in the room, "We're all going to talk to that Tite guy. If you're interested, go to room 107. That's where we'll be," he said and he walked out of the room.

Aya rolled Maya into her room. "What do you want, Aya? I know you want to ask me something," Maya said lazily. Masataka shut the door as Aya helped Maya onto her bed. Maya took the lunch and began eating.

Aya sat beside her and looked up at the ceiling. "Do you still have feelings for him?"

Maya started choking on her food and Masataka rushed over and gave her some water. "What-kind-of-a-question-is-what?" she gasped out.

"We're bringing Mr. Tite into room 107. He's requested to speak with you all now," said a nurse. Aya was going to answer Maya's question but decided against it. She took Maya's empty tray and helped Maya onto the wheel chair. They went into the room and saw only Bob, Tite, and Souichiro.

"Where's everyone else?" Maya asked them.

"Chiaki went home," Bob told her.

"My brother's probably on his way," Masataka said.

"Bunshichi broke some bones in his back, so he's not allowed to move around much and Emi's probably still asleep," said Aya.

"Should I start without them?" Tite asked. He had a broken arm and his head was bandaged up.

"Why are you willing to tell us everything?" Maya eyed him suspiciously.

Aya moved over to Souichiro's bed and sat down. Masataka sat over on Bob's bed.

Tite sighed and said "You won. We fought. I lost. Now, I am what I would consider to be, in your debt. You spared my life, whereas I wouldn't have."

"You're really in Mitsuomi's debt. He's the one who protected you from..." Maya trailed off.

"I guess you're right. We should wait for him then," he replied, sitting down on the vacant chair.

"What?! We have to wait for him to bring his fatass down here?! That's gonna take forever!" Souichiro complained.

"You don't have to wait at all," Mitsuomi said. He was standing in the doorway. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Would you like to sit down?" Aya asked while pushing Souichiro over so Mitsuomi could sit down.

He shook his head. "I'm fine with standing." Everyone looked back at Tite, who stood up.

"Well... I guess it would be easier if you'd ask me questions, and I'll answer," he stated.

"What was with the throwing knives?"

"Why didn't you try to fight the Captain?"

"Who are you?"

"Why did Maya act possessed?"

"Do you have the Captain's necklace?"

"How did you get the throwing knives?"

"Why did you give the throwing knives to Isuzu?"

They all asked the questions at the same time, and that made it hard for Tite to answer them all.

"Uhm... I don't understand the first question. I did try to fight your uhh.. 'Captain' but I wouldn't," he started to say.

"Why couldn't you?" asked Souichiro.

"I can only fight people who don't have any ki. I can stop, or better yet, 'freeze' people who don't have any ki, but those with it are more powerful than I," he shrugged. "Now, 'who am I'?" he began to chuckle. "How will I answer that question... I think I'll tell you who I am after I answer your other questions. Maya 'acted possessed' because technically, she was. Whoever gets cut by the throwing knives attacks whoever they feel threatened by. There's only three ways to 'cure' it. Either kill them, give them the antidote, or they just snap out of it. I never took any necklaces-"

"You dirty liar!" Souichiro jumped up on the bed and pointed his finger at him. "I saw you take it!" he shouted but Tite disagreed.

"You do have red hair, right?" Aya asked.

Tite took off the bandages from his head and sure enough, he did have red hair.

"It's... not him," Maya said disappointedly.

"What are you talking about?! He has red hair and-"

"Sit down brat!" Maya shouted. Aya pulled him down to the bed and hugged him and he tried to get free of her grasp but he was unable to do so. "You're not perceptive, are you? Look at him."

Tite waved at Souichiro and Souichiro crossed his arms. Tite did have the same flaming red hair as the thief, and his eyes were the same color.

"He looks like the guy to me..." he mumbled.

"No! No! No! He has a ponytail, but it's much shorter than the thief's. Also, his bang is covering the opposite side of his face," Maya snapped.

Tite just shrugged. "I'm assuming you're talking about my twin then."

"Twin?!" everyone shouted in unison.

"Hmm.. If I answer this question... then it should answer all of your questions..." he said out loud. "This is going to be kind of a long story, so I'm suggesting you all to get comfortable."

"Would you like to sit down, now?" Aya asked Mitsuomi again.

"I'm quite comfortable standing," he said firmly.

"Well, it's not like I found the throwing knives lying on the ground or anything. About two years ago, my twin and I were hired by a man to assassinate this governor. Being that we enjoy killing, we didn't ask why. On the day he asked us to kill, we killed. He was impressed and he assigned us on another mission. This time, we had to prove that we could sneak into any place and not get caught. And so we did. He finally trusted us and we were invited to his estate.

"Now... this man.. I'm still under orders but since I failed, I feel like I'm allowed to judge him. He's not crazy... but... he's crazy obsessed...

"His house was huge. It was at least 5 stories high and the ceiling's each had murals on them.

"The weird thing about one of the floors was... well... every room on floor four was empty... except one picture. There was one picture of the same girl in each room. It was the same picture of the girl, too. Nobody was allowed on that floor, but in order for him to trust me and my brother's abilities, we were told to sneak onto that floor and steal one of the paintings."

"Who was the girl?" asked Bob.

"Well.. The picture was of a little girl. But I do know she was much older than that at the time."

"Was she his daughter?" Aya asked.

He laughed for a minute. "Thank you, I needed a good laugh... it's been so long, but no, she wasn't his daughter, nor was she a relative of his."

"So who is she?" Souichiro asked impatiently.

"I find it odd that I have to explain that... I would think by now you'd figure out who hired me," he said, looking at Maya. She looked confused, so he continued on with the story.

"The picture of the girl was shown to be about seven years old. When we were hired, that picture was about eight years old. Now, it would be ten years old."

"So, she's 17 then?" Masataka asked.

"You ask her," he said as he was still looking at Maya.

**AN: sorry to do this!! But this chapter was getting too long... so I split it up...**


	9. Takao

"Wh-What are you... talking about?" Maya stuttered in shock.

"We were hired by Hiromu," Tite said.

"Hiromu... that's what that other guy said!" Souichiro stated.

"No...," whispered Maya. "I... don't need to hear any more..." Maya turned the wheel chair around and wheeled her way out of the room but Mitsuomi was in her way. "Mitsuomi... let me thru," she quietly said.

He moved out of her way but as she started to go down the hall, he called after her. "Maya... wait..."

She turned the chair around to face him. He was still standing in the doorway, but his back was facing the people inside of the room.

"Who is Hiromu? Why did my sister react like that?" Aya asked. She looked worried and Souichiro frowned a little.

"About 10 years ago, Hiromu made a deal with a young boy. His parents just died and he had to take care of his two younger sisters."

"That was.. Brother?" Aya's eyes widened.

He nodded and added, "He needed money to take care of them, so he used to pickpocket people. One day he pickpocketed Hiromu, but he got caught. Hiromu was going to have him killed when this little girl came running up and stood in front of him. 'Don't touch him!' she shouted.

"Hiromu was impressed by the little girl's bravery. He let the boy go, but he wanted to know his story, so he brought the little boy back to his house.

"The boy told him about his past with his parents. He also told him about the day he killed them. Hiromu was becoming impressed with the little boy and he decided to make a deal with him.

"He told the boy he would give him so much money that he and his two sisters would be able to live, marry, and each have a dozen children, and still have money left to spare, but in return, the boy would have to give up something.

"The boy agreed before he even heard what he had to give up. 'The Reiki', Hiromu told him. The kid begged and pleaded for him to ask for something else. Hiromu thought for a while when he finally decided on something.

"'I want your younger sister,' he told the little boy. The brother agreed and he left for his house. He returned shortly after with both sisters, and Hiromu chose Maya. He told the other two to leave, and at first, Maya loved living with him. She thought it was like a camp or something but once she realized that her siblings weren't going to come, she became upset and distant.

"Hiromu didn't like seeing her like that, so he made her promise that if he allowed her to leave, she would have to come back to him in 10 years. She happily agreed and was returned to her family."

"But.. What do you and your brother have to do with any of this?" Masataka asked.

"I'm not at liberty to tell you what my brother was ordered to do, but I can tell you about my order."

Mitsuomi and Maya could hear the story Tite was telling everyone, even though they were in the hallway.

"What do you want?" she asked him.

"Why did you slap me?" Mitsuomi asked.

"I... don't know what you're talking about," she looked away.

"At the last second you changed your attack... you've been saying for years that you'd take me down. You had your chance yesterday, why didn't you take it?"

"The last thing I remember was being alone in the hospital room. After that, I remember walking back to the hospital with everyone else. I don't know what happened between that though."

"Maya...." Mitsuomi said softly and Maya looked at him.

"As you all know, my order had to do with those throwing knives. I accomplished only half of it though. I was told to give the throwing knives to Emi Isuzu and she would take care of everything," Tite said.

"So she did know everything, after all!" Souichiro shouted.

"She didn't know a thing. See.... a couple of years after Maya returned home, Hiromu bumped into that boy. Having assumed that Maya would forget about that arrangement, he reminded the boy about it.

"Then about two years ago, he was given word that 'Shin Natsume had been defeated by Mitsuomi Takayanagi'. Hiromu was devastated. He wasn't sure if little Maya would remember the deal.

"Hiromu hired five investigators to figure out Takayanagi's motives. They came back, each saying the same thing. 'Takayanagi is in love with Maya Natsume'."

Everyone in the room turned their heads toward Mitsuomi. He was still facing the opposite direction, so they couldn't see his expression. They turned back to face Tite, and he continued on with his story. "Nobody was sure if she felt the same way towards him because at around that time, she stayed away from him. She opposed him.

"I was hired to give the throwing knives to Emi Isuzu because back then, she was working for Miss Mana K., who was Shin's girlfriend. Hiromu assumed Mana would be angry with Mitsuomi, so he believed she would order Emi to kill him.

"Of course he didn't know Mana was killed on the same day as Shin was. I found that out for myself. At first I assumed Emi Isuzu was working under Takayanagi only so she could get close enough to him, so she could take him out easily. So I gave her the throwing knives.

"Imagine my surprise when I found out she attacked Maya!" he laughed a little.

"So wait... you mean... Emi was supposed to attack my brother? But why?" Masataka asked.

"Because he's in love with Maya. Hiromu would've ordered someone to have done this sooner, but because Maya was staying away from him, Hiromu assumed he'd be over her.

"But he was wrong. One of the investigators was watching their interactions closely and noticed something. Whenever Maya is in a fight, Mitsuomi balls up his fists. When she's yelling at him, he just blankly stares at her. When she passes him by in the hallways, he never looks away."

Maya started to roll herself back words. Tears were starting to build up in her eyes. "Maya... you need to hear this..." Mitsuomi softly said.

"He was still in love with her. No matter what. Hiromu went berserk, and that's when he met us. He told me, Isuzu would attack Mitsuomi, and he would get cut by the blades. Since Mitsuomi loves Maya, if any guy were to make a move on her, he'd feel threatened and would take him out.

"Everyone fears Mitsuomi since they found out about him being the one who had killed Shin. So, nobody would try and fight back. Hiromu had also heard about the price Mitsuomi had paid. He knew that as long as Mitsuomi was alive, he'd kill any guy who got close to Maya. Then, one day, Mitsuomi would die, and Maya would be alone.

"Hiromu would then come back and claim his prize," Tite finished his story.

Everyone faced Mitsuomi again, who was still facing the opposite direction. "Maya...," Mitsuomi started to say.

"No...," Maya quietly said as her tears silently fell. "No...." she repeated. She turned the wheelchair around and went to her room. Mitsuomi didn't try to stop her this time.

"But... what about that necklace?" Masataka asked.

"Like I said, I can't answer that. You're gonna have to defeat my brother," he replied.

"Where is he?" Souichiro asked, balling up his fists.

"I don't know. I haven't talked to him in a couple of months."

"But, at least tell us his name," Aya begged.

"Takao. Now, I need some rest," he got up and exited the room.

**AN: Takao is the first name of the author of Beyblade**

"M-Me too..." Aya said. Everyone agreed and Mitsuomi, Aya, and Masataka left the room.

"I feel so bad for that midget girl...." Souichiro said.

"Yeah, me too," Bob replied.

"Hey, Bob?"

"What?"

"I'm hungry..."

"Yeah... me too..."


	10. The Woods

**Helloooooooooo everyone! =] I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Not gonna lie, so far it's my favorite! And I have to give thanks to my bestie, Aloendra, cuz without her, this chapter would've stayed incomplete. So thank you! =]**

"Hey...," Shin tugged lightly at Maya's light blue sheets. "Maya. Hey. Wake up. Dammit.... wake up!" he pushed Maya off of her bed, and she landed on the ground with a loud 'thump'.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! You can't go into people's rooms, uninvited, and then go kicking them out of their beds!" Maya shouted at her brother.

Shin laughed at her and opened up the blinds. "Hey, I thought the Juken Club should take a break from all of the training. We're all going to the beach at 10, so get ready." He patted her head with a big smile and walked out of the room.

Maya stood up and looked at her clock. It was a quarter to eight.

"_It doesn't take me that long to get ready!"_

She went into her bathroom and showered. She rushed thru her shower and threw on a white bath robe. The bath robe covered her upper body, but it revealed her long smooth legs. It didn't matter though, because she planed on changing as soon as she entered her room.

She walked out of the bathroom and saw Aya sitting on her bed.

"Aya? What are you doing up this early?" she asked.

"Brother says you're going swimming today! Can I go with?" Aya pleaded.

"I guess so..." Maya started to say but was unable to finish because Aya jumped on top of her. "Get off! I'm barely covered and-"

"What's going on here?" Shin chuckled as he entered the room.

Aya was sitting on top of Maya, and Maya started to blush a little. She tried to pull her short bath robe down so she could try to cover her legs, but that only worsened the problem. Her legs were covered, but now her breasts were almost out. Maya pushed Aya off of her and stood up right away, adjusting herself and her bath robe.

"Hmph! It's rude to walk into a person's bedroom without knocking! Didn't I just yell at you!?" She told Shin.

He put his hands up in defeat and grinned to himself as he walked out of the room. Aya laughed and ran out of the room. Maya closed the door with a loud 'bang', and started scratching her head.

"_I guess it's time I should get dressed..."_

She casually walked up to her dresser, opened up the drawers, and began her search for her bathing suit.

"Of course!" she groaned out loud. "I gave my bathing suit to Aya because it didn't fit me anymore.. Now all I have is...

She pulled out a small black bikini. _"This!" _She wore it once and the moment she went into the water, her top's strings became undone. It was too tight, but she had to wear it. She didn't have the time to buy a new one. _"This'll have to do...."_

She took off her bath robe and put on her black bikini bottom. It fit perfectly. Then she put on the top. It fit fine, too, but only for a bout a minute. Then the tie in the back loosened and when she moved, the strings fell to her side.

"_This isn't good...."_

There was a knock on her door and she quickly threw on her bath robe. She opened the door, but nobody was there. She looked down, and saw a small dark blue bag. She saw a card sticking out of the bag, and she bent down to pick it up.

'_I remember what happened last time' -Shin_

She laughed a little, and tossed the card back into the bag. She went back into her room and threw the bag to the floor next to the mirror. Her bath robe fell off, and she looked at herself.

"_I really can't wear this.. Maybe... I can wear a t-shirt the whole time... or..." _Maya thought as she eyed the bag.

She tossed the card out, and saw something black left in the bag. She picked it up and examined it. The gift her brother had given her was a bikini top, identical to the one she was wearing. The only difference was, the new one was slightly bigger. She quickly ripped off the bikini top she was wearing, and tossed it on the floor.

She put on the new top and she checked herself out in the mirror. It looked and felt a lot more comfortable than the previous top. After a minute and a half, she giggled, and picked up the top from off of the floor and threw it into the garbage.

She went to her closet and looked thru her clothes. She couldn't wear pants because it was too hot out, and that would be ridiculous. If she were to wear shorts, it would be rather difficult to take them off properly in public. She chose her favorite jean skirt that had a red hand print on the back of it. To match, she threw on a plain red shirt.

She walked into the bathroom and washed her face. She was going to put makeup on but decided against it.

"_Who am I trying to impress? It's just going to be me, Aya, Shin, Asshat, Bunshichi and... Mitsuomi."_

She decided to put on some blush and lip gloss. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror and went back into her room.

"You done yet? Let's go!" Shin shouted from the outside of her door.

"Yeah!" she shouted back as she checked herself out one more time.

"_Today is going to be a good day. A day to remember!"_

Maya walked outside and saw Aya and Shin standing by his motorcycle. Aya was holding a helmet and was smiling. Shin was holding two helmets and when he saw Maya, he began to smile, too.

"There's no way we're all going to fit on that!" Maya said.

Shin threw the glittery purple helmet at Maya and sat on his motorcycle. "That's why I told Bunshichi to come by. He's going to take Aya."

Maya turned to look at Aya, who shrugged in return. "Oh! I almost forgot!" Aya said as she dropped the helmet and ran back into the house.

A minute later, Shin and Maya heard Bunshichi roaring up their street. He stopped his bike right next to Shin's and turned it off. He wasn't wearing a helmet but he was wearing a plain white shirt and regular blue jeans. He stayed seated on his bike and lit up a cigarette.

"I have an idea!" Maya smiled. She threw on the glittery purple helmet and sat down behind Bunshichi. "I'll go with him, and you can wait for Aya!" She wrapped her arms around Bunshichi. Shin looked disappointed and Bunshichi shrugged. He started his bike and they drove away.

"So what was that all about?" Bunshichi shouted over the roar of the motorcycle.

"Hmm? That was nothing. I just didn't feel like waiting," Maya said.

"You in a hurry to see half-dressed males running around?" he asked, jokingly.

Maya laughed at his joke and the two teased each other continuously while on their way to the beach.

* * *

"Hey! I think I see them!" the green haired lad shouted.

Mitsuomi and Asshat were standing beside each other in the parking lot, which was located right next to the beach.

"But.. That's Maya and Bunshichi. Where's Shin?" Asshat asked.

Mitsuomi shrugged and both watched as Bunshichi quickly parked into one of the few vacant parking spots. Mitsuomi and Asshat rushed over to the motorcycle.

Bunshichi turned off his motorcycle and grinned at them. Maya took off the helmet and started fixing her hair.

"So where's Shin?" Asshat asked, looking around, searching.

"What? No hellos?" Bunshichi asked back.

"Oh, don't mind him. I'm sure they've been pretty worked up what with all of the women around here," Maya said, eyeing the females around her.

The guys looked around them and noticed the women, too.

The beach was covered with people, but more than half of them were women. Some were wearing shorts. Others were wearing skirts. But most were running around in their very tight bikinis.

"I'm sure none of them could even look half as good as you in you're bathing suit," Mitsuomi said as he slightly began to blush. He turned away from Maya just as she went to look at him.

"And now we wait...." Bunshichi said while still staring at the females.

Maya got off of the motorcycle and decided to lean against it. Bunshichi stayed seated, whereas Asshat and Mitsuomi sat down on the black top.

At least 15 minutes had passed before they finally saw Aya and Shin. Shin parked next to Bunshichi and grinned.

"Hiya, everyone!" Aya greeted them as she jumped off of the motorcycle. She was wearing a yellow, short sleeved shirt with baggy blue jeans. She threw off her helmet and picked up a picnic basket.

"See!" she said to Maya, "this is what I forgot! I wanted to make everyone some sandwiches for lunch but I was too excited earlier, so I forgot."

Shin and Maya just shook their heads as everyone else began to laugh at their response.

"Welllllllll it's getting too hot for me! I'm going for a swim!" Asshat announced. He threw off his gray shirt, but kept his beige shorts on and ran off to the beach.

"Yeah!" Mitsuomi said happily. He unbuttoned his white shirt, but kept it on. Along with his white shirt, he was also wearing a wristband and black shorts. He looked over at Maya, who gave him a weird look. Mitsuomi shrugged and chased after Asshat.

"Let's go make sure they can swim," Shin said. He got off of his motorcycle and walked toward them, with Aya following shortly behind.

Maya was about to follow but was stopped by Bunshichi's outstretched arm.

"Hey Maya, wait a sec," he said as he got off of his bike. He stood next to her but kept his eyes on his other friends.

"What is it?" Maya asked, noticing he wasn't looking at her.

"So why did you choose him?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied, and it was the truth. She wondered what he was thinking about but gave up on trying to figure it out.

"Why did you choose to fall in love with Mitsuomi?" he said plainly.

"W-What?" she stuttered out. She turned away from Bunshichi and looked at Mitsuomi. He was smiling and talking to Shin. When he noticed Maya was looking at him, he started waving at her. Maya blushed a little, smiled, and waved back.

"Uh-huh..." Bunshichi said. He walked toward his friends, leaving Maya alone.

"Hey!" she shouted after him. She ran up to him, nudged him in the side, and ran toward everyone else.

"Now that everyone's finally arrived," Asshat announced proudly, "we can finally go swimming!" He flexed his so-called muscles and ran into the water.

Bunshichi grinned and sat down in the sand. "You're not coming?" Mitsuomi asked.

"Nah. I will later. I feel like checking out the view," he grinned at Mitsuomi as they both looked around.

Maya huffed and crossed her arms. Aya looked at Maya and noticed what was going on. She pushed Maya, and they both landed in the sand, face first. "Aya!" Maya shouted. The three boys laughed at them, and quickly, Aya joined in.

Shin moved over toward them, and only helped Aya up. Maya went to grab Shin's hand, but he quickly turned away.

Mitsuomi, though still laughing, moved over to Maya, and extended his arm. "H-Here," he said while laughing.

Maya took it, but pulled him down to her. He landed on his stomach with his face in the sand. Maya stood up and he looked up. First thing he saw was her black bikini bottom under her skirt, and he hurriedly looked at her face. "It wasn't that funny," she replied with an angry look. Mitsuomi was unsure if she was truly mad until she smiled at him and began to laugh. He smiled and laughed too. She helped him up once she stopped laughing, and they both stood there, looking at one another.

"Hey. You two. It's time to swim," Shin snapped. He already took off his shirt, and was wearing blue shorts.

"Yeah!" Aya said merrily. She was wearing a purple bikini bottom and top. She moved toward Maya and took off her shirt. "Come on!" she nudged Maya, who slightly fell forward.

"Woah!" Mitsuomi said as he caught Maya before she fell into him. Maya looked up at him, but quickly looked away.

"Sorry," she quietly replied as she watched Aya running toward the water. Shin was already in the water, swimming toward Asshat.

"No problem," Mitsuomi chuckled. He let go of Maya and she regained her balance. "Shall we?" he asked.

Maya walked over to Bunshichi and looked around. She saw Asshat and her brother's shirts were thrown down by an empty beach chair, which Bunshichi moved to. On the other side of him, she noticed her sister's clothes were neatly placed next to the picnic basket she brought.

Maya took off her skirt, and she folded it with her shirt. She bent down and placed her clothes on top of Aya's. Maya was still bending over when Bunshichi turned to her direction.

"Damn, Maya. You have some nice tits. I'm surprised I never noticed them before," he said. Maya stuck out her tongue and laughed as Mitsuomi began to cough.

"Hey kid. You gonna compliment the lady?" Bunshichi asked, not looking away from Maya.

"Maya-" Mitsuomi began.

"Don't say a thing," she stood up and looked at Mitsuomi with a smile.

"But-" Mitsuomi tried saying.

Maya winked at him and walked past him. "You coming?" she shouted to him.

"Y-yeah!" he shouted back. Bunshichi grinned and Mitsuomi smiled. He rushed over to Maya and got only his right foot in the water.

"Wait," she told him. She turned around and eyed him up and down. "You're not going in like that, are you?" she asked. He looked down and realized he was still wearing his shirt. He shook his head and laughed. He started to move his hands toward his shirt, but Maya smacked them away. "Let me," she said. She put her hands on his shoulder, underneath his shirt. Mitsuomi moved closer to her, so she would have an easier time taking off his shirt. She placed her thumbs on top of the shirt and she slid her hands down his arms. When she pulled his shirt down to his wrists, he moved his hands and placed them on hers. By instinct, she grabbed and held his hands. The moment their hands met, there was a slight shock that jolted thru their bodies. Maya looked up at Mitsuomi to see if he felt it too, and judging by the look on his face, he did.

Asshat noticed the two were just standing there, holding hands. He swam over to them, and splashed Maya. "Hurry up already!" he said.

Maya, almost soaking wet, let go of Mitsuomi's hands right away and turned around. "Hey!" she shouted. He swam with full force to get away and she went after him, leaving a shocked Mitsuomi.

He looked down at his hands for a minute and shook his head. He finished taking his shirt off and threw it over toward Bunshichi. "Hold onto that," Mitsuomi told him. He stepped into the water, and shivered a bit. He waited until he got used to it, before he dove in. He swam toward his friends and was greeted with splash after splash after splash.

* * *

"I'm getting all pruney!" Maya complained. She started to swim toward the shore, but was stopped by Mitsuomi. "What?" she asked.

"Where are you going?" he asked back.

"I'm getting all pruned up and I'd like to eat lunch!" she replied, eyeing him suspiciously.

"No," Mitsuomi said firmly.

"What?" Maya replied, starting to get angry.

Mitsuomi moved closer to her and held onto her wrist so she couldn't swim away. He kept moving closer to her until their noses were touching.

"W-What do you think you're doing?" Maya stuttered out.

Mitsuomi smiled and closed his eyes. Maya, still puzzled, glanced around. Asshat was standing next to Bunshichi. They were both chatting up a group of women. Shin was helping Aya with setting up a small picnic on the sand.

Maya and Mitsuomi were still swimming, but this time, they were alone. Shin left 10 minutes ago, much to his reluctance.

Maya looked back at Mitsuomi, who still had his eyes closed. "What are you thinking? My brother will see us any minute now!" she said nervously.

"What are you talking about?" Mitsuomi replied. A second later, he pushed Maya under the water and began to laugh.

Maya resurfaced and splashed him with water. "Jerk!" she shouted as she swam toward the shore. Mitsuomi followed shortly after, smiling to himself.

* * *

"Wow Aya! That was really good!" Asshat said with glee. He just finished eating his 4th sandwich.

"Really? You can have some more, if you'd like," she said with a slight blush.

The six of them were sitting around the small picnic basket, in the sand. Asshat went to reach for the last sandwich but Bunshichi hit him upside the head. Instead, Bunshichi grabbed it and ate it in one bite.

"Nice job," Shin said. He was sitting next to Aya, so he patted her head with gratitude.

"Yeah!" Mitsuomi agreed, finishing his sandwich.

"I wish you had packed more water though," Maya said, looking at her empty water bottle.

Shin went to grab his water bottle but Mitsuomi beat him.

"Here. You can have some of mine," he said as he handed her the bottle.

"You sure?" she asked. He nodded and smiled, so she took a sip and gave it back.

"Well now!" Asshat said while standing up, "who's up for a game of volleyball?"

"Yeah!" Mitsuomi, Aya and Maya said in unison. Shin gave Mitsuomi a dirty look but gave Aya and Maya a smile when they looked at him.

"Letssssssssssss go!" Asshat shouted. He ran toward his stuff and picked up the white volleyball.

Mitsuomi stood up and helped Maya up. She smiled and they walked toward an unoccupied volleyball net. Aya hopped up and ran after them.

"Wait a minute, Shin," Bunshichi said. Shin looked at the others longingly but then looked back at Bunshichi. "Calm down. I see the way you're looking at him, Shin. He hasn't done anything wrong, yet," Bunshichi calmly said.

"Exactly! Yet! But he will and-"

"I know. You'll take care of him. But for now, you should be relaxing. This was your idea, you know," Bunshichi stood up and walked away.

Shin thought about what Bunshichi said for a few minutes before he realized he was right. He stood up and went to join the others.

"You're with us!" Asshat told Shin as he arrived. Shin looked over at Asshat and nodded. He wasn't sure who his team was because everyone else was sitting down on the sidelines.

He looked over at Maya, who just stood up. Aya and Mitsuomi stood up too, and quickly walked over to the opposite side of the net.

Maya smiled at Shin and walked toward him. Shin smiled too, assuming they were on the same team.

"You're going down, brother!" she said as she got close to him. She grinned and walked to the other side of the net. Mitsuomi smiled at her and gave her a high five.

"Remember. Have fun," Bunshichi reminded Shin.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied back.

* * *

"Get it!" Maya shouted. Maya, Mitsuomi and Aya were losing by a point, and everyone decided that this next point would determine the winner.

Aya dove for the ball, and hit it. It went into the air, but it wasn't high enough to go over the net. Maya rushed over and set the ball for Mitsuomi, who in return, spiked it. It went crashing down onto the other side and before Asshat had time to move, the ball hit him in the face.

"Point!" Aya and Maya shouted happily. They jumped into the air, and they gave each other a high five one another.

"One more point, and we win!" Maya taunted the other team.

"Right..." Bunshichi said calmly. He didn't really care about the game at all. He just wanted Shin to keep his cool. He picked up the volleyball and tossed it at Mitsuomi.

Mitsuomi caught the ball, and walked over to the edge of the court. He tossed the ball into the air, and hit it with all of his might. Shin hit it back at him, with full force. Mitsuomi hit it back, and this time, it went toward Asshat. Asshat hit it up in the air, and Bunshichi had to hit it, in order for it to go over the net. Aya hit it, but because Bunshichi hit it harder than she expected, the ball went up in the air. It was so close to the net, but it wouldn't go over. Maya and Mitsuomi ran toward the net, and they both leapt into the air and spiked the ball. Shin, glaring at Mitsuomi, didn't pay too much attention to the ball, and it fell right in front of him.

"Score!" Aya shouted happily, as she jumped up and down.

Maya and Mitsuomi both landed on the sand at the same time and smiled. Maya jumped onto Mitsuomi. He wrapped his left arm around her, and she put her right arm around his neck. They took their free arms and launched them into the air in triumph. "Yeah! We win!" they both shouted.

Bunshichi sighed and watched Shin carefully. His eyes were full of fury and he was starting to shake uncontrollably. Asshat looked down in shame, but then he looked up and smiled. "Can't win 'em all!" he shrugged off. He looked at the winning team and gave them a thumbs up. That's when he noticed a girl was smiling and waving at them. "Hey! Looks like we have a fanclub!" he said, waving back at the girl. He started to walk toward her, but then he realized who she was. "Hey... Shin. It's your girl," he said, sounding disappointed.

Bunshichi noticed Shin wasn't listening, so he 'playfully' punched him. Shin glared at him, but instead of Bunshichi looking angry, he just pointed toward Mana. Shin looked and smiled for a second, but then looked back at Mitsuomi, who was still smiling and holding Maya. Mana walked up to the group, and they all greeted her.

"What are you doing here? Brother didn't tell us you were going to join us," Maya said as Mitsuomi put her down. He looked at Mana cautiously and then walked over toward Asshat. Shin smiled at Mana and hugged her.

"I tried calling you at two, and then at four, but you didn't answer," Mana told Shin as she playfully poked him in the chest.

"I was... busy," Shin explained to her, as he let go of her.

"Well, I was worried. I thought... you were going to forget about our date..." Mana slowly said.

"Oh... yeah..." Shin said, having finally remembered.

"You did forget, didn't you?!" she accused.

"So what if he did? That's what males do," Bunshichi tried defending Shin.

"Dinner?" Shin asked her, trying to calm her down.

"Hmm..." Mana sounded as she thought about it. She looked up at him, and he looked as if he felt sorry for forgetting. "Sure," she said with a smile.

"Great! We could all use some dinner!" Asshat joined in.

"Uhm..." Aya said, pulling at Asshat's arm. "I don't think we're invited..."

"No. No. You can all come. It's not like I actually expected him to remember," Mana said, looking at the two. "Besides, we were just going to go to some fast food place. Nothing personal or anything," she added.

"Sounds awesome! It's like what... 5 o'clock? It'll take at least an hour to get to some place that actually has decent food. Perfect timing!" Asshat said.

Asshat trotted off to his stuff and Aya and Bunshichi followed. Maya nodded, and Mitsuomi smiled at her. They walked closely together as they went toward their things. Before Shin moved, Mana wrapped her arms back around him.

"Did you enjoy yourself today?" she asked warmly. She rested her head on his shoulder and he looked down at her.

"Not until now," he answered, and he kissed her hair. She giggled, and he tightened the hug.

"Hey! Lovebirds! We're leaving!" Asshat shouted.

Mana and Shin let go of their embrace, and walked toward the others.

"We're all gonna meet at Johnny's," Mitsuomi told them as they arrived. Maya, Bunshichi, Aya, and Asshat already left.

"Maya's not going with you?" Shin answered, trying to keep his calm. Mana played at his hair, and he slowly let his breath go.

"No... why would she?" Mitsuomi replied, feeling confused.

".... no reason," Shin said. He took Mana by the hand, and they walked to the parking lot.

"See you two soon," Mitsuomi told them as he walked over to his motorcycle.

* * *

**AN: I honestly don't really feel like writing about them eating dinner... so.. Long story short, Bunshichi flirted with the lady taking their order, Asshat enjoyed his food, Aya stayed quiet, Mana tried distracting Shin, Shin kept giving Mitsuomi dirty looks, and Maya and Mitsuomi kept looking at each other and smiling.**

* * *

When they finally finished eating, it was about 7:30 p.m.. Bunshichi had gotten the waitress's phone number, and decided to head home for the night, feeling accomplished. Asshat had told one of his friends that he would be able to hang out at eight, so he left in a rush. The others were standing around the parking lot where Mitsuomi and Shin had parked their motorcycles.

"Mmmmmm... I'm getting tired," Aya said, stretching. She looked at Shin who smiled, and at Maya who smiled, too.

"Hmm.. Shin," Mana said, smiling up at him. Shin looked down at her, and smiled too. "Mitsuomi can take Maya and Aya home. Then we can go on our date!" she said.

"I... don't know about that," Shin replied, turned to look at his sisters.

"Mitsuomi doesn't have to take us home. We live close by, so we can just walk," Maya said. Aya nodded in agreement.

"Alright..." Shin said. Mana hugged Shin happily, and pulled him toward his bike. The others just stood there and watched as Shin turned on the bike. With one last wave from the two of them, they smiled and disappeared from view.

"I can at least walk you two home," Mitsuomi said, looking at the two girls.

Aya yawned and Maya looked at Mitsuomi. "What about your bike?" she asked.

"Hmm? Oh.. Right," he said, looking at his motorcycle. "I can come back later and get it," he said with a smile. He moved over to Aya, and lifted up his hand. "You look really tired. Let me carry that for you," he said, talking about Aya's picnic basket. She smiled, and handed it over to him and began to walk toward the direction of her house.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Maya said, walking up next to him.

He smiled and laughed. "And what if I said that I don't feel like going home just yet?"

Maya was taken aback by his response. She stood there, looking at him, not replying. "Well? I enjoyed today. It's too early to go home," he said. He put his free hand onto her shoulder and grinned. "Let's go," he said, turning her around.

* * *

**AN: another lazy moment for me! =] anyways! Nothing really happens, they all walk to the Natsume residence. Aya stays up front. Mitsuomi and Maya make small talk. Nothin too interesting.**

* * *

Mitsuomi, Aya, and Maya arrived at the Natsume's house about 15 minutes later. Aya grabbed the picnic basket from Mitsuomi's hand, and hugged him goodbye. While Aya did this, Maya looked away, pretending not to notice. Aya hugged Maya quickly.

"Goodbye!" she said to Mitsuomi. She waved with a smile. Then she opened the gate and went into the house.

Mitsuomi waved at her, and turned his attention onto Maya. She was looking up at the moon, and didn't seem to notice the departure of her sister. He stepped toward her, and she quietly said "you're not leaving now, are you?" She looked at him and tilted her head. With the help of the moon's natural light, Maya's sapphire eyes were shimmering.

Mitsuomi noticed that, and just stared at her in awe. She softly laughed at his response, and walked up to him. She put her hand under his chin, and lifted his face down to hers. "You don't want to be with me, any more?" she asked, staring at him.

His eyes widened, and he began to turn red. "O-Of course I want to be with you. B-But what about Shin?" he asked, turning more red.

"What about him?" Maya replied, letting go of his chin. She turned and started walking back down to the path they had walked previously. Mitsuomi stared as she did this, until she turned and gingerly asked "you coming?" She turned back around and continued on down the street.

Mitsuomi stood there for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts before he finally calmed himself down. He took a breath and hurried on his way, to Maya's side. He caught her, just before she walked across the street, and he put his arm around her shoulder. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"So where are we headed?" he asked.

"Back to your bike, of course," she replied, while looking up and down the street. They crossed, and turned to the left.

"Why? I thought you wanted to hang out?" he asked, looking confused.

"Of course. When you get your bike back, you can drop it off at your place, and then we can... do whatever. Walk around, go to the park, you name it!" she said with a smile.

"Oh..." he said quietly. He looked down and thought for a while. "Yeah! I got it! There's this place that I've been wanting to take you to for quite a while now!" he said with animated enthusiasm.

"'Quite a while now'?" she questioned him.

"Uhh.. Yeah," he nervously laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

Maya laughed at his reaction, and rested her head on his arm, as they continued on walking.

"Well... here it is," Maya said once they reached the parking lot.

"Yup," Mitsuomi agreed. He removed his arm, and started his bike. Maya sat down behind him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. "You're going to want to hold on tighter, Maya. I tend to drive a little fast," he said, grinning at her. She smiled and did as he said.

During the ride to Mitsuomi's house, they chatted about their childhood; About what it was like growing up in the Takayanagi household; What Shin was like back then; What being an older brother was all about; How she and Aya have changed greatly over the past year.

"You know... I have to thank you," Maya said, as Mitsuomi stopped his motorcycle. They had just arrived at that Takayanagi residence, and all of the lights in the house were off.

"What for?" Mitsuomi said surprised.

"Because of you... I've... I feel as if I've matured. As if I've become a better person," she said, looking away from him.

"Maya...." Mitsuomi softly said. He got off of his bike, and lightly took her hand. She turned and looked at him. He leaned into her, and she started to lightly blush. "Maya... I... should thank... you..." he said slowly and softly as he moved his face closer to hers. He stopped moving and waited for Maya to do something. She could feel his breath being mixed with hers. She closed her eyes, and moved forward. Their lips, finally meeting. An electric shock went threw both of them. The kiss seemed to last forever. Maya softly moaned when Mitsuomi broke the kiss. "For everything," he finished his sentence. He looked at her, and they both blushed and smiled.

Maya went to get off of the motorcycle, but stumbled a bit. Thankfully, Mitsuomi caught her before she fell. "Thanks," she said, blushing even more.

Mitsuomi smiled back at her, and they just stood there, staring at each other again. "Are you ready?" he asked her. She nodded, and he took her by the hand, and walked her behind his house.

"You wanted to take me here?" she asked him, looking around. There was a deck that had two large tables on it, with chairs all around them. There was also a large swimming pool in the left side of the yard, with five chairs surrounding it. The rest of the backyard was empty. The far back seemed to lead to the woods, because it was too hard to see past the first few trees.

Mitsuomi laughed, and led her toward the trees. "Not exactly. See... When I feel the need to runaway, or when I have nothing better to do, I go into the woods. A couple of weeks ago I found this one clearing that... I think you'll like," he said happily.

They walked past the pool, and into the woods. It was hard to see, but Mitsuomi knew where they were going, so Maya stayed close to him. Eventually, they had reached a clearing. Since the moon was shining brightly that night, it was easy to see everything. The trees surrounding the clearing had some bright green colored moss on them. There was also a small river flowing by the far side of the trees, which didn't look too deep. On the left side of the clearing, there were bright blue and white flowers. They looked newly planted, but at the same time, they looked as if they belonged there.

Mitsuomi looked down at Maya and smiled at her reaction. "This is... so.. Beautiful," she said with awe.

"Yes, it is. But compared to you..." he said, until Maya placed her finger over his mouth.

"Don't..." she said, not looking at him.

"But.. Why?" he asked, moving her finger, and placing her hand in his.

"Mitsuomi....," she said, looking at him, her eyes trying to decipher his. "I...," she started saying, but gave in. She put her arm around his neck, and pulled him down quickly. He took initiative, and deeply kissed her. She let go of the kiss, and whispered in his ear, "I want you."

Mitsuomi looked at her and she smiled back. He understood exactly what she meant. She pushed away from him, and took off her shirt. He grinned at her, and took off his shirt, too. She moved closer to him, and he put his arms around her back. He untied her top, and she lifted it over her head, revealing herself to him. He looked at her breasts, and almost didn't look away, until Maya started tugging down his shorts a little. He put his hands on her skirt, and slid them down her legs. He eyed his wristband, but decided to keep it on. Mitsuomi also pulled his shorts down, after taking out a condom and Maya took them from his hands. She turned around and threw their clothes over by one of the trees.

He quickly put the condom on, and he stood back up and stared at her back. He wrapped his arms around her waist as she leaned back against his chest. Mitsuomi gently moved his left hand over her breasts and lifted her chin up to the side, to see her sapphire eyes. She smiled at him and kissed him gingerly on the lips.

He brought her closer to him and put more force into the kiss. Maya pushed herself closer to him, as he slowly turned her body to face his, still kissing her, holding her close. He moved his hand from her chin, to her cheek, and down her chest, and over her breasts. She shuddered with ecstacy and broke away from their kiss, while exhaling a sigh of pleasure at his touch.

As he moved his lips down to her neck, he continued moving his hand down her body, and slipped his hand into her bikini bottom, pushing his fingers inside of her. She moaned, and pulled him closer, breathing harder and harder. He pulled his fingers out of her, and took off her bikini bottom.

She scanned her sapphire eyes up and down his muscular body; over his softly blowing hair in the wind; over his raising member; all the way she was getting even more wet. Losing control at the sight of her naked body, he picked her up and pushed her up against the smooth bark of a nearby tree.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and as he entered her, he pushed himself deeper and harder, inside of her. He started moving faster, pushing harder, getting deeper, breathing harder. She moaned, wave upon wave of pleasure pouring into her. His hips flexed each time he thrusted himself inside her. She started moaning louder, and moved her hips against his, grinding her body against his, pulling him closer.

She dug her nails into his back and arms and the pain made him double his efforts. He pulled himself out of her, and turned her around, grabbing her around the waist with one arm. He turned her around and she bent over. He reentered her from behind and started thrusting his large member in and out of her. She moaned and grabbed onto the tree for support. He exited out of her, and moved her around, again. He leaned his body over hers, holding her hips, and began kissing and sucking on her neck. She rolled her head back out of excitement.

He moved his mouth over her breasts, opening his mouth to lick her nipples. She wrapped her fingers in his hair, forcing him to put her nipples in his mouth. He started sucking on them, strengthening his grip on her hips. He once again picked her up, as she began sucking on his neck.

He walked them over toward the flowing river, and they slipped into it. He gasped at the way the water had enhanced her large breasts, her small waist, and the swell of her hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him closer to her. He watched as the water ran down her body, every drop accenting her every curve. He held her tight, and they continued making love.

Their bodies tensed as they came for each other. He picked her up, and brought her out of the water. He laid her gently onto the grass, and she touched his face with her finger tips. He laid down next to her, and her wrapped his arms around her.

"I love you, Maya. I always have," he whispered into her ear.

She smiled at him, and truly felt happy. "Mitsuomi... I love you, too."

* * *

Maya awoke with a shock. She was grabbing onto her sheets with all of her strength, and was sweating up a storm. She leaned up out of her bed, and looked at her clock. It was two a.m..

"_Just a dream," she told herself._

She wiped the sweat off her forehead, and moved out of bed. She quietly walked thru her room, and went into her bathroom. She turned on the lights, and her pupils got big and then went back to normal. She looked at herself in the mirror.

It had been one month since the last time she had seen Mitsuomi in the hospital. But every day since that day, she had thought about nobody else but him. She had had dreams about him, but they were never like that. Her dreams were mostly about him walking away from her, as she tried her best to catch up, but never could.

This dream was totally unlike the others. It was more realistic. More confusing. More emotional.

"_Why would I dream of something like that? That never even... happened? Or did it? I... can't remember... I know that's weird to think but it's true. I've tried to forget about him all together, but it never worked. I was able to forget about some of our conversations though..." she thought miserably._

She started the sink water and splashed water on her face. One month ago, her friends were all in the hospital, being told about her past. Mitsuomi tried talking to her, but she refused to listen. She didn't want to listen.

"_I... never want to see him again!" she thought angrily._

She splashed more water on her face, and turned off the water. She looked back up at her reflection and stared at herself for a minute.

"_I say that... but I don't believe it... How can I? After... everything... I just... can't..."_

She started to cry softly. She fell down to the floor, and began hitting the rug.

"_I miss him... I really do... but there's nothing I can do about that. Mitsuomi hasn't even gone near me since the hospital..." she thought in between her soft sobbing._

She quickly wiped her tears away, and stood back up. She opened up the medicine cabinet, and took out some sleeping pills. She's been dependent on those ever since she had fought Emi. She took two, and walked slowly back to her bed. She went underneath the blankets, and quickly fell back asleep.

**Soooooooooooo let me just say.... im NEVER writing another chapter this long, ever again! Believe me, I enjoyed it, but man was it a pain! Haha I just couldn't stop! And when I reread everything... I was proud of myself for what I had typed, but ashamed for how long it took! Ugh! But it was worth it! **

**Hopefully you're not mad for the 'surprise' ending, but personally...** **I think it was pretty obvious that it was a dream! Or at least Maya reminising about the past? Or did it not actually happen? Ehh.. I don't know! Haha**


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